In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

Reviewed by:
  • Let the People See: The Story of Emmett Till by Elliott J. Gorn
  • James Conway
Let the People See: The Story of Emmett Till. By Elliott J. Gorn. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. Pp. xii, 380. $27.95, ISBN 978-0-19-932512-2.)

Several scholars have written about Emmett Till, and many consider his death to have been a catalyst for the civil rights movement. However, confusion still persists, and our recollection of Till is often based in emotion and myth instead of facts and scholarship. Elliott J. Gorn’s goal in Let the People See: The Story of Emmett Till is not only to provide the complete story of what happened to the fourteen-year-old Chicagoan who was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi, but also “to take it seriously as a story” (p. 4). In thirty-four short chapters, divided into four sections, he analyzes a vast amount of primary and secondary source material. Gorn humanizes everyone at the center of Till’s story and provides an intimate portrait of the locations and people involved in Till’s brief life.

Gorn connects every detail of Till’s life, murder, and trial in a fashion similar to an investigative journalist while using his training as a scholar to deeply examine the sources. He analyzes court transcripts and newspaper articles to place readers inside the courtroom, in Mississippi, and in Chicago before, during, and after the trial. He includes the national news coverage from mainstream publications such as the New York Times and the black press’s Chicago Defender. He also uses local and regional papers, such as the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger and the Memphis Press-Scimitar. Newspapers not only provide the story but also illustrate the environment in which they were printed. Black newsmen encountered racism while covering the trial, but they and white journalists also worked together to find additional suspects who many locals believed had participated in the crime. Gorn’s inclusion of the NAACP records allows readers to see not only how the [End Page 528] organization assisted with Till’s case but also how it used the tragedy to serve its own purpose by increasing membership numbers.

The last section examines how Americans memorialized, forgot, and later remembered Emmett Till. Gorn analyzes decades of newspapers, magazines, and television specials that show a regression of coverage of Till. Immediately after the trial, some white people wanted to keep Till’s murder from fading from memory because they profited by creating books, movies, songs, and plays. Others (especially white southerners) quickly forgot or created myths to justify his death. However, Gorn’s examination of memoirs and biographies shows that black civil rights leaders during the 1960s used the murder as motivation because it had been an integral part of their childhoods. By the end of the next decade, Till’s story had vanished completely from mainstream popular culture. However, it was resurrected in 1986 when NBC aired a story nationwide on Till that was produced by a local Chicago reporter. The next year, the PBS documentary Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement reached households across America. It was the first time many white Americans saw Till’s mutilated body. Gorn concludes with details about the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act of 2008.

Dividing the manuscript into small chapters allows Gorn to tell a complete and coherent story. Though the massive amount of detail may be overbearing for younger readers, the narrative tone of this book makes it easy to follow, and readers will want to read every page. The inclusion of recent events in which Till’s name has been invoked connects past and present generations to the story. Overall, Let the People See provides a comprehensive and well-written account of Till’s brief life that can be appreciated by scholars and most general readers.

James Conway
Tarrant County College
...

pdf

Share