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79 5 Trial by Print Over the course of four days in September, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, the state of Mississippi, the Deep South, and the nation all went on trial, a trial by print. Four days after the trial began, the shocking saga of brutality and murder that had captured the nation’s and the world’s imagination reached a climax when, after roughly an hour of deliberation , the jury returned a verdict of not guilty. For many of the reporters, their time in Sumner, Mississippi, following the trial shone a light on the realities of southern racial oppression. Through their trial coverage, national and regional print media outlets reinforced and rearticulated their disposition toward the lynching and Mississippi’s ability to ensure justice in a case of white-on-black crime. In effect, the media’s coverage of the trial was itself a trial by print of the state of Mississippi, the Deep South, and the nation. This coverage underscored the saliency of the Till lynching in the annals of American race relations, it fueled a visceral public outrage, and it helped galvanize a generation of civil rights activists. By the start of the trial, most national publications had already deemed Bryant and Milam guilty of murder; therefore, the overwhelming backing the accused enjoyed from their white Mississippi compatriots drew the ire of the staff at news outlets. Only Judge Curtis Swango and District Attorney Gerald Chatham escaped outright condemnation in the pages of Time and Newsweek. Both publications noted that Judge Swango was a beacon of progress and justice in the dark abyss of Mississippi’s white supremacist history. Time offered: “Tallahatchie County came into conflict with the tradition of the law in the person of Circuit Judge Curtis M. Swango.” District Attorney Chatham and the state-appointed special prosecutor, Robert Smith, also drew kudos. As Time saw it: “The prosecutors for the State of Mississippi . . . made an earnest effort to build their case at what can be assumed to be great social cost to themselves.” The reason for that “great 80 In Remembrance of Emmett Till social cost”? As Life observed: “The prosecution was up against the whole mass of Mississippi prejudice.”1 Surely, the prosecuting attorneys deserved some recognition for battling obstacles throughout the process, but The Nation’s Dan Wakefield offered a different perspective, one that made clear the fact that the prosecution ’s strong case was a result of the courage and determination of black trial witnesses rather than prosecutorial efforts. Commenting on the resolve of black witnesses, Wakefield underscored how Till’s greatuncle Moses Wright spoke loudly and clearly while recounting the night of the kidnapping: “He never lost his straightforward attitude or lowered his head.” This fortitude came in the face of customarily disrespectful attitudes toward black men, both the prosecution and the defense attorneys refusing to use the title Mr. and consistently calling him “Mose” or “Uncle Mose.”2 Equally affronted by southerners during the trial, and equally praised for her resoluteness, was Mamie Till-Mobley. In typical racist fashion, both sets of attorneys neglected to call her Miss or Mrs., and, in an ultimate show of disrespect, the defense counsel received permission from Judge Swango to remain seated while questioning her. Regardless, Till-Mobley showed her strength as well as her resolve to memorialize her son’s life and condemn his murderers. Wakefield described her under crossexamination as “answering intelligently, steadily, slightly turning her head to one side as she listened to questions, replying with a slow, distinct emphasis .” Chronicling her attention and focus on the stand, Wakefield explained how she turned her head to hear the questions. Most importantly, his description of her answers affirmed her determined assertion that the body found in the Tallahatchie River was that of her son. Mamie Till-Mobley responded to her son’s lynching and the racism in Mississippi by going to the Deep South to testify against the murderers, and, in that role, she spoke slowly and deliberately so that there would be no mistaking her beliefs. Moreover, despite the racist lynching of her son, Till-Mobley had the fortitude and forgiveness to say: “I’m not bitter against the white people. . . . The color of a person’s skin has never made any difference to me.” The public gravitated to her and wanted to show their support, and she “received . . . $1,000 in over 1,000 letters from people all over the country.”3 The outpouring of support offered...

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