jennifer-roberts Last night I watched, or should I say, studied the first episode of ABC’s important mini-series, “Women of the Movement.” It was honest and raw, heart wrenching and relevant. This is “must see and act” TV.
Women of the Movement recounts the real-life kidnapping, mutilation and murder of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago, Illinois. The series focuses on Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley who influenced the Civil Rights Movement with her courage and transparency after the gruesome murder of her only son. The sordid and unimaginable horrors of this story did not come from the mind of an imaginative writer or director, it came directly from the annals of American history.
Emmett, or Bo-Bo, as he was affectionately known by his family was visiting extended family in Money, Mississippi in August 1955, when he was accused of flirting Carolyn Bryant, a young clerk while purchasing candy inside a local store.
You may be thinking, “Something doesn’t sound right. You mean to tell me that a 14-year-old boy was kidnapped, beaten, dismembered, lacerated, murdered and then thrown into a river with a weight tied around him for being accused of flirting?”
“Yes, you heard me right.”
Emmett Till grew up during the Jim Crow era. Even though slavery officially ended in the United States in 1865, Jim Crow laws kept Black people socially and economically disenfranchised, particularly in the South. Black people were wrongfully treated as second class citizens and were denied basic civil like the right to vote, the right to sit anywhere they chose on public transportation, attend any school they chose and the right to be served in restaurants.
Signs like, “No Niggers Allowed,” “We Don’t Serve Niggers” and “Whites Only” were displayed in public facilities. And these were the written rules. There were dozens of other unwritten rules that Black people were expected to remember and follow or it could cost them their lives. Rules like not looking a White person directly in the eye and stepping off a sidewalk so that a White person could pass were designed and enforced to uphold White supremacy.
So, because of White supremacy and all of its sick iterations, Emmett Till couldn’t simply be a boy visiting his family for the summer. He was forced to be a Black boy visiting his Black family for the summer in the racist south.
As I watched the first installment of this three-part mini-series, I couldn’t help but take notes and take notice of the juxtaposition of humanity and inhumanity in the storytelling.
I observed the inhumanity of the nurse as she ignored Mamie’s cries for help during her early stages of labor. I absorbed Mamie’s humanity as she held her son, caressed his feet and spoke life over him for the first time.
I saw the inhumanity in Carolyn Bryant lying on Emmett and chasing him and his cousins away from the store with a pistol and the humanity in Gene Mobley’s love for Mamie. I was repulsed by the inhumanity of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam forcefully and disrespectfully entering Mose Wright’s home and kidnapping Emmett and I reveled in the humanity of Mamie enjoying the company of her friends during a routine card game.
I wrote down 20 different examples of humanity and inhumanity that I saw woven into this very human story I’m sure I could have identified more. I think the creators of the show intended for viewers to be see this dichotomy and to reflect on its significance.
It is seeing, accepting and valuing the humanity in people no matter how they look, live, worship or vote that allows us to love one another, connect and create community. By contrast, it is seeing another person as inhuman, other, less than and unworthy that allows separation, judgment and hate to fester. When judgment, hate and feelings of superiority grow, racism thrives and it is this cancerous racism that kidnapped, maimed and murdered Emmett Till in 1955. It is the same cancer that killed George Floyd and Ahmaud Aubery in 2020.
Maybe you have never considered the idea that racism exists in America or maybe you don’t believe that racism exists. Perhaps you think that racism is a Black problem and that it doesn’t have anything to do with you, your family, or your community. Racism has everything to do with all of us and we can choose to become engaged and intentionally become part of the solution.
This series, Women of the Movement, is more than something to watch; it is an invitation to learn from the past and confront racism in the present. This series removes excuses and brings the issue of racism into our living rooms again. Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Freddie Gray, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Aubery and countless others’ murders are all invitations to confront to racism now. The conversations are going to be uncomfortable, but they are necessary. The truth is going to hurt but it is necessary for understanding and healing. The road is long and the work is hard but we can be better. The conversation needs your voice. Will you accept the invitation? I certainly hope so.
