If you are an African American between 20s and 40s in the 1950s, your parents’ generation fought during World War I and you grew during or right after the Harlem and Chicago Renaissance. You are familiar with jazz and most likely read Langston Hughes. Moreover, either you or a relative fought during World War II. Despite your history of service and contribution to the nation, you are not consider a citizen
While White Americans were enjoying life in the suburbs, African Americans were living in hell. On 1955, while visiting relatives in Mississippi, Emmett Till was lynched by two men after a white woman accused him of “whistling at her.” He was tortured for hours, his body was mutilated, and the remains of this body were thrown to the Tallahatchie River. Emmett Till was fourteen years old and the assassins were acquitted.
Source: Dave Mann (photographer) “Mamie Till (Emmett’s Mother) at Emmett’s funeral” Available at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till#/media/File:Emmett_Till’s_funeral_-_mourners.jpg (Links to an external site.)
The brutality of the crime and the subsequent acquittal of the assassins made Emmett Till immortal. Society remembers Emmett Till as a victim of hate and racism, as a victim of an ideology that regards non-white lives as disposable. Emmett Till exemplified how unjust the United States was toward African Americans.
Document Analysis: “The Death of Emmett Till” by Bob Dylan
“The Death of Emmett Till” was not release on an album studio until the 1970s. However, Bob Dylan played this song often during live performances.
Source: Bob Dylan, “The Death of Emmett Till” Lyrics at Linder, Douglas, Famous Trials, (maintained at the University of Missouri- Kansas City Law School) 1995-2020 at https://famous-trials.com/emmetttill/1764-murdersong (Links to an external site.)
“The Death of Emmett Till” by Bob Dylan
Twas down in Mississippi
Not so long ago
When a young boy from Chicago Town
Walk in a southern door
This boy’s fateful tragedy
We should all remember well
The color of his skin was black
And his name was Emmett Till
Some men they dragged him to a barn
And there they beat him up
They said they had a reason
But I disremember what
They tortured him and did some things
Too evil to repeat
There was screamin’ sounds inside the barn
There was laughin’ sound out on the street
They dragged his body to a gulch
Amidst a bloodred rain
And they threw him in the waters wide
To cease his screaming pain
The reason that they killed him there
And I’m sure it ain’t no lie
He was a blackskin boy
So he was born to die
And so to stop these United States
Of yelling for a trial
Two brothers they confessed that they
Killed poor Emmett Till
But on the jury there were men
Who helped the brother commit this awful crime
And so this trial was a mockery
But nobody seemed to mind
I saw the morning paper
But I could not bear
To see the brothers smiling
On that courthouse stairs
For the jury found them innocent
And the brothers they went free
Whilt Emmett’s body floats the foam
Of a Jim Crow southern sea
If you can’t speak out against this kind of thing
A crime that’s so unjust
Your eyes are filled with deadman’s dirt
Your mind is filled with dust
Your arms and legs, they must be in shackles and chains
And your blood it must cease to flow
For you’d let this human race
Sink so God-awful low
This song is just a reminder
To tell my fellow man
That this kind of thing still lives today
In that ghost-robed Klu Klux Klan
But if we all then think alike
If we give all we can give
We’d make this Great land of ours
An even greater place to live.
Questions:
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(**) Keep in mind the basic format: answer to question + “quote from source”+ analysis (explanation on how quote supports answer to question)
– Image you are a Dylan fan, you grew up on the suburbs and this is your first concert: how would you feel after listening this song? why?
– What does Bob Dylan mean by this?
“The reason that they killed him there
And I’m sure it ain’t no lie
He was a blackskin boy
So he was born to die”