The Barn

October 21, 2024
A forgotten landmark signifies silence and complicity in this sprawling history of the Emmett Till murder. ESPN journalist Thompson (The Cost of These Dreams) revisits the 1955 killing of Till, a 14-year-old Black Chicagoan visiting relatives in Mississippi, for whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. Till was dragged from his bed by Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant, her brother-in-law J.W. Milam, and others, who tortured and shot Till and left his body in a river. Bryant and Milam were acquitted at trial and then, protected by double jeopardy laws, confessed to the crime in a self-justifying Look magazine interview. Drawing on his own interviews with eyewitnesses and their relatives, Thompson gives a chilling recap of Till’s murder and outlines the firestorm of publicity that made the case a civil rights touchstone, the willful amnesia about the lynching among whites in Mississippi, and the latter-day movement to commemorate the barn where Till died. The narrative also traces multigenerational histories of families associated with the killing as well as the underlying forces—land values and cotton prices—that ruled their harshly exploitative society. Throughout, Thompson combines meticulous historical sleuthing with dense atmospherics (“The darkness of rural Mississippi remains a physical thing, heavy and alive.... There is no safety outside the civilization of headlights”). It’s a vivid recreation of a shocking crime.

March 7, 2025

Journalist Thompson (Pappyland: A Story of Family, Fine Bourbon, and the Things That Last) offers a stunning history of the brutal 1955 torture and murder of 14-year-old Black teenager Emmett Till, who was lynched for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Thompson, whose family farm is located just 23 miles away from where Till was killed, notes that Mississippi's response to Till's death (particularly in white communities) has largely been silence; the shocking crime isn't talked about or taught in most Mississippi schools. Thompson sheds new light on Till's murder, focusing not only on the lynching but also on the people who were present and those who prevented justice from being rendered. He also highlights the spot where Till was killed, at a barn owned by one of the killers. Thompson interviewed the few surviving people with direct knowledge of Till and his family, including Till's friend Wheeler Parker, who accompanied Till to Mississippi and was the last of his friends or family to see him alive. Thompson narrates his own work, offering a compelling and convincing performance. His solemn and sober tone effectively conveys the facts while bringing home the gravity of this vicious lynching. VERDICT A heartbreaking and illuminating listen, laying bare the social and political climate of the time and the lasting impact of a horrifying hate crime.--Erin Cataldi

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