By Nicholas Stix
You weep for Emmett Till, and you curse Jim Crow. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know – that Till’s death, while tragic, probably saved lives; and the existence of Jim Crow, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives.
That’s a very charitable paraphrase. I’m not sure Till’s death WAS tragic. He was his daddy’s boy, in the worst sense of the word. The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.
'While serving in the Italian Campaign, Till was arrested by military police, who suspected him and another soldier, Fred A. McMurray, of the murder of an Italian woman and the rape of two others, in Civitavecchia. After a lengthy investigation he and McMurray were court-martialed, found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.'
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