The Photograph that Re-Ignited the Civil Rights Struggle
For centuries, Black Americans were viciously killed and nothing was done about it. But then, a mother's brave act and commitment to justice brought the terrible truth to the mass audience and White people could no longer turn away from this brutality.
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In September 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley mother of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till who had traveled from Chicago to Mississippi to visit family over summer break, was stricken with grief after her son was murdered by white supremacists in Money. She told the funeral director to, "Let the people see what I’ve seen." Mamie insisted on an open casket for her son's body and brought him back to Chicago for a public viewing.
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Mamie Till-Mobley shared a stark black-and-white image of her son's mangled body with newspapers and magazines. When asked why she did this, Bradley replied that seeing, with their own eyes, the aggression and viciousness of racial terror would make White Americans more likely to advocate for human rights. She proclaimed firmly, “The entire nation had to witness this.”
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The White media refused to publish the photograph, so Mrs. Till-Mobley reached out to the Black press for help. Tens of thousands were shocked by seeing Emmett's remains, but it was the publication of the powerful image taken by David Jackson and printed in Jet magazine, featuring Mamie's stoic face staring at her son's beaten body, that made everyone around the world confront the savagery of American racism.
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https://revolutionsincommunication.com/features/civilrights/
@Deglassco I continue to be amazed at how ignorant wypipo like me were raised to be, and how much more aware of our shared history Black people tend to me, and then I see stories like this, reminding me that every paper wypipo like me might have read refused to run the photo. No wonder we remain so ignorant!
@pwinn The white newspapers were part of an institutionalized system that refused to acknowledge racial injustice. That’s why they didn’t want to run it.
@Deglassco Contrast that with now, when so many newspapers seem to split their time between supporting systemic discrimination and supporting corporations. We do finally get some coverage of some racial injustice, but mixed in with a whole lot of bootlicking and hand-wringing.
