Picked this up because of all the good reviews. It's an excellent resource, good writing, clear photos, and tons of facts. It's also incredibly difficult to read, parts are so brutal and awful. There's also a photo of Till's body mentioned that was published in Jet magazine. That photo appears on page 67, and I wasn't really expecting it. It's important that they included it, but you might want to brace yourself before turning the page to see it. If you have anyone asking you for a good Civil Rights research resource, this is an excellent choice. ( )

Chris Crowe’s take on the Emmett Till Case is as comprehensive and compelling a document that comes in at just over 120 pages. He wastes little time and space with hyperbole or sensationalism, gets to the heart of the matter, and sets the scenes with a global perspective – one gets the sense that you are reading a much larger, longer book. He is unsparing and hardly sentimental; true, it should not be hard to find one’s sympathies with Emmett and his mother, Mamie Till Bradley. But his honesty about the brutal, ugly face of racism in America is refreshing because it is free of preachy commentary: the facts are powerful enough. The truth is overwhelming enough, and yet, even faced with the truth, the good people of Mississippi valued their vaunted Southern chivalry, Christian lifestyle, and racist livelihoods more than returning a just verdict; at least they were true to the cause and sincere in their sentiments, and Crowe makes certain we feel disgust at their responses and reactions. His sparse and unsparing presentation is as stark and visceral as any photo, as though a documentary-maker's film continued running all throughout. His recreation of the courtroom scenes – accompanied by photographs from the trial itself – makes the reading feel as familiar to those of us already acquainted with these dastardly moments from American history. For mature students in the middle school grades or high school students. ( )

This book strikes such a deep emotional chord that it is nearly as difficult to review as it was to read. With phrases such as “integration was a Communist/Socialist plot to destroy America” (p. 31) and a trial that played out like that of Trayvon Martin, I had to keep at the forefront of my mind that what I was reading did, in fact, happen more than 60 years ago. But it still happens today.
The author does a great job of focusing on the events of mid-century America and letting the reader draw his or her own connections to the modern day. He fully sets the stage for these events, including details such as the opening of McDonald’s, helping to transport readers into the past. The final chapter, “Aftershocks,” updates the events to the point of the fortieth anniversary of Emmett’s murder in 1995, but goes no further. A photograph of Mamie Till on that anniversary is the only non-contemporary photograph within the book. The many primary sources concretely place the reader in the 1950’s.
Throughout the book, “Black” is capitalized while “white” is not when referring to the color of a human’s skin. This gave me pause. After some research, I agreed with the author’s use of capitalization. An author’s note on his usage would have been important to include, especially to make this a better teaching tool and clarify his intentions to a young and impressionable audience. A time line, bibliography, and list of additional resources a great, but an index and glossary are noticeably missing and could have been helpful regarding this book being a teaching tool.
Despite being such a difficult book to digest, I highly recommend this book to anyone old enough to deal with the tragic subject matter and gruesome photograph of Emmett Till’s body. The description of the trial becomes tedious to read, but is entirely necessary to convey an understanding of how unfair were the proceedings. On page 60, the author describes his sources: trial transcripts and post-trial interviews. He points out that "where the sources don't agree, the trial testimony takes precedence over the...interviews." In other parts of the book, like on pages 54 and 55, he makes it clear that we do not and will never know exactly what words were said and what actions played out in that rural shop so many decades ago. He does not try to fill in unknown details for the sake of good story telling, but presents multiple viewpoints and accounts of the story, acknowledging contradictions and the fallacy of human memory. ( )

This is a book I would teach with 5th grade students. The book is a tough read and has some hard issues in it such as rape and murder. However, this is a good book to read in Social Studies, as an introductory to the civil rights movement. This is because the unjust death of Emit Till was the spark that started the movement.

This book would be good for when you have already started talking about segregation and its effects. It could be used as to show just how unfair life was for African Americans. It could also be used for analyzing multiple accounts of segregation and racism and from there students, or as a whole class, will find the similarities and differences between the different counts and discuss them.