Devery Anderson discusses new Emmett Till book

It took more than 20 years for a publisher’s editor living more than 1,600 miles away to write what is arguably the most research-intensive and comprehensive book ever produced about the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in the tiny Mississippi Delta town of Money.

“Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement,” published by the University Press of Mississippi, will debut Saturday at the Mississippi Book Festival at the Capitol in Jackson, where Devery Anderson will participate in a Civil Rights History panel.

A Washington native who moved to Salt Lake City in 1994, Anderson is a Signature Books editor who first learned of the Till case that year. The story of the brutal, racially motivated murder had a deep effect on Anderson, and he was soon determined to seek out the facts and someday bring them to light.

Signature Books in Salt Lake City, which publishes scholarly books on Mormon history and the West, has produced three volumes on Mormon history authored by Anderson, with another due out next year.

How did you first became aware of Emmett Till’s 1955 murder?

Just after moving to Utah in 1994, I went to the public library in Salt Lake City and checked out the first episode of the PBS series, “Eyes on the Prize,” a history of the civil rights movement. I had taken an interest in African-American history because the Mormon Church had long maintained a controversial policy of withholding its priesthood from black males and barred black men and women from the church’s highest rites and ordinances. That policy was abandoned in 1978, but I still found it disturbing and the variety of reasons put forward for justifying it as troubling.

The first episode of “Eyes on the Prize” includes a 15-minute segment about the Emmett Till case. When I watched it, I was deeply moved and troubled. Here I learned for the first time that in August 1955, an African-American teenager was kidnapped and brutally murdered for a minor flirtation with a young white woman. I had so many questions and was shocked that I had never heard of the case before. From that moment I felt passionate about finding out everything I could on the subject. There were only two books out about it at the time, and I read them both quickly.

Why do you think Till’s case made such a big impression and what has kept your interest?

The case was so tragic — a young boy murdered by two grown men. Within weeks of the crime, both men who were tried were acquitted by a jury of 12 white men, which was unjust to the world outside of the South. Then, knowing they could not be retried, they agreed to tell their story for a handsome payment, adding even more injustice.

I wanted to know what happened to Emmett Till’s mother, his uncle Mose Wright, and the acquitted killers. The story became personal for me once I got to know Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. I called her in November 1996 to arrange an interview with her for a class project. From that first phone call, we became friends and spoke often over the next six years, until her death in January 2003.

Writing and researching this book took you 10 years. Tell me about that long process.

By the time I decided to write this book in the fall of 2004, a few more books had been published, including Mamie Till-Mobley’s memoir, “Death of Innocence,” and two film documentaries. Despite these contributions, no one had really tried to tell the story in full, examining the historical documents that could clear up the many contradictions and false memories of some of the principals.

The case had been opened for investigation by the FBI in May 2004, and I knew that there was stronger interest in the case at that time than ever before. My goal was to conduct major archival research, examine old newspapers, interview witnesses and others still living who had some involvement, had known Emmett Till, or covered the trial. The FBI found a copy of the trial transcript several months into their investigation, which had been lost for decades. I wanted to take advantage of that find and any other information the FBI uncovered. I wanted to include the results of their investigation in telling the story in full for the first time.

There have been other books and articles written about Emmett Till’s death. What makes this one unique?

Some of the books on the Till story are memoirs by family members; others emphasize one aspect or another about the case, such as media coverage of the trial. As important as these are — and I used them as source material — they had limitations or perpetuated errors. Documentaries, as good as they are, also have limitations, and depend upon the memories of participants, too often accepting them at face value.

Although these have done much to advance knowledge of Emmett Till, I felt that a comprehensive telling of the story, correcting the record as best I could by weighing contradictory sources and statements to get at the truth, was crucial. It is also the first book to cover the FBI investigation and its results, including full use of the trial transcript. It also is the first book that references interviews of family members of the accused killers and accomplices. Readers will come away feeling that they know the story in full, from beginning to end.

You made about a dozen trips to Mississippi and Chicago to conduct interviews and research. How were you received in Mississippi?

Mississippi feels like a second home to me now. For the most part, people have been wonderful. The staffs at the various libraries were always gracious, helpful, and went out of their way for me. Occasionally after someone asked me what I was doing in town and I answered them, I would be met with either silence or rolled eyes, but those moments were the exception. I have certainly come to love the state and its people.

I interviewed several Till family members, most while in Chicago. Emmett’s cousins, Simeon Wright and Wheeler Parker, have become good friends and are two men I admire as much as anyone on earth. We are still in touch, and I hope we always will be. I have come to know The Clarion-Ledger’s very own Jerry Mitchell over the last few years, which has been a side benefit of doing this book. I interviewed Myrlie Evers Williams about the role of her husband, Medgar Evers, in searching for witnesses. Several reporters who covered the case were also helpful and graciously accepted my requests for interviews, such as Bill Minor, Dub Shoemaker, John Herbers and Dan Wakefield. Trial spectator Betty Pearson, formerly of Sumner, the home of the trial, has let me talk to her several times.

What was it about Till’s murder that helped set in motion the circumstances that led to the nation’s civil rights movement in the 1960s?

Much was already in the air before Emmett Till’s death that had set the quest for racial equality in motion. Black soldiers who fought in World War II for freedom abroad quickly noted the contrast upon returning that at home, were lacking those very freedoms. The Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision in May 1954 that declared that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional inspired a new confidence that the doctrine “separate but equal” had no place in society and would come crashing down in time.

The Till case and the injustice tied to it helped the world see what things were like in the American South. Protest rallies that followed the trial were held all over the nation and in places like Paris. It gave everyday people a new confidence that they can make a difference and they said, finally, “Enough is enough.” The Montgomery Bus boycott began in the midst of that atmosphere just two-and-a-half months after the acquittal.

What was your purpose and hope for this book?

Although many more people are aware of the case today than when I first learned of it in 1994, and there are more resources, including the Internet, to quickly obtain information, there had never been a source available like this book. Readers will quickly see that it is well researched — I would add painstakingly and meticulously researched.

I want the name Emmett Till to be as well-known as the names Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr. I want readers to feel the tragedy that was this case, and to ask themselves just how far we have come. I want them to see parallels in attitudes today, despite the fact that we have come a long way regarding racial issues.

Other comments?

So many lives were changed forever as a result of this case. Emmett’s mother went on to turn it into a positive, as she was determined that her son not die in vain. She became a school teacher and for years, led the Emmett Till Players, a group that traveled and recited speeches of the civil rights movement. The killers, although never convicted, lived in many ways in prisons without walls. Their family members suffered, also, and still do. Accomplices who were never tried were haunted by the murder their entire lives.

It really was a tragedy of the worst kind, something the acquitted killers, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant, never could have imagined the night they took Emmett Till from his bed. They lived in a society where these things didn’t get much attention and thought the world, if it learned of Emmett Till at all, would soon forget him. They were wrong.

Miss. Book Festival, signing

•Devery Anderson will appear at the Miss. Book Festival Saturday at the Capitol in Jackson.

•He will sign copies at Lemuria Books in Jackson at 5 p.m. Aug. 24.