“The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi” shines a light on a story that Black families have been sharing with their children ever since the death of Chicago teenager Emmett Till was featured in the September 15, 1955 issue of Jet magazine. Photos of Till’s ravaged body still haunt memories till this day. And at the same time, the murder was also a major moment in the Civil Rights Movement.
Having been born 22 years after Till’s murder in Money, Mississippi, and growing up some thousands of miles away in Brooklyn, New York, I had my opinion on Mississippi set in stone because of it. My first visit to the Magnolia State was this summer when I took my family on a visit to Jackson, the state capitol. During my interview with Thompson, who hails from Mississippi and felt this story needed a Mississippi Delta native to tell it in its proper context, called the book a, “historical math problem.”
Thompson will be at McElreath Hall at the Atlanta History Center on October 2. Beginning at 7:30 p.m., he will have a conversation with Condace Pressley about “The Barn.” Doors open at 6 p.m.
The Atlanta Voice: What is it about the Emmett Till story that feels so important to this country and the South’s legacy?
Wright Thompson: There’s a real joy in knowing that someone will come along next, read all of the other books, read my book, strip it for parts, and push the story forward. We cannot as a country be complete until this story is completely told.
AV: What is the best and worst part about writing about Mississippi, your home state?
WT: The good part is that I realized early on in this project that I didn’t really know anything about the place that I thought I knew best in the world. That’s a real gift, because if you don’t know your home, you’re not really from there, which means you’re not really from anywhere.
AV: I can’t wait to get your feelings on Mississippi when the book comes out on Tuesday, Sept. 24.
WT: The problem is I also love [Mississippi], but I’m not entirely sure what it’s going to be like there in 15 days when this thing comes out. Mississippi doesn’t like it when you talk out of school.
AV: Jumping right into the book, how did it feel when you first found out about the Barn where Emmett Till was murdered?
WT: When I first found out that the Barn existed I really judged the guy who lived there. So, if people are asking why should I read this if I’m not from there, well, America is too big to hold history in your hands, which is why we have so many myths. So my hope is that if you could shrink America to 36 square miles, I think, maybe you could see it.
AV: What was that moment like when you learned the name of Till’s cousin, Wheeler Parker, Jr., who made the trip to Mississippi with Till that summer?
WT: Let me tell you, the book as it was originally conceived and sold stopped in 1955. In the process of reporting it, I met Rev. Wheeler Parker. I think he should be on money. Just being around him forced me to reimagine the whole book because I couldn’t believe he was still alive. He was in the house the night Emmett was taken.
Meeting Rev. Parker has made me reexamine everything I think about God, because I can’t think of another explanation for why someone could be this full of grace, forgiveness, and love.
AV: Sounds like a great man.
WT: I just couldn’t admire someone more. It’s my hope that one of the things that happens with this book is that he is forever cemented as a central player in the great American story.
AV: As the EIC of a Black-owned and operated newspaper, I’d like to thank you for referencing the work of Black publication reporters, such as Simeon Booker (Jet Magazine), and Moses Newsome (Tri-State Defender) and their coverage of Till’s murder. Why was that and other levels of research important to put in the book?
WT: You’ll understand this. Some things you do because it’s an assignment. I spent a lot of time researching this before it was a book. I needed to know how Emmett Till was murdered in a barn 23 miles from my family farm and not only did I not know about the barn, no one I knew really knew about the barn, and the barn wasn’t a museum and there was no historical marker. It was just somebody’s barn.
At its simplest level the book is an investigation of how any of those things could possibly be.
AV: What would you like readers to take away from reading “The Barn”?
WT: That we know a lot about this particular murder, but the register of what we don’t know, I found to be startling. And the reason we don’t know it is not an accident. There has been deep, intentional erasure of this crime, so the book ends up being about the conflict between memory and erasure. It’s the erasure of this crime and the concentric circles of complicity in it.
AV: So in other words, there’s much more to the Emmett Till story to learn?
WT: The story that is told so often is that two people killed a child. First of all, it was way more than two people. After four years of reporting my guess is eight. The other six people went unpunished and unrecognized, so we are still sorting all of this out. There will be new information about this killing and the hope is that you learn the history of 36 square miles in America to learn the history of all of America. You learn the history of one killing to understand all of the killings. It feels urgent.
This isn’t something that happened. This is something that is still happening.
AV: Lastly, why is Emmett Till’s story still so polarizing, powerful, and poignant heading into the 70th year of his murder and impact on the Civil Rights Movement?
WT: I have thought about this endlessly. The reason why we can’t escape this murder, to me, is the power of the physical barn itself, because in it lies the truth about all of us. We have lots of myths about who we are. We are what happened to this child, and we also are the response from so many Americans that to make sure he did not die in vain. In the battle between erasure and memory over the story of Emmett Till lies the entire future of the United States of America. If we have a future it will be in the victory of memory over erasure. If we don’t it will mean erasure, in this particular instance, has triumphed over memory.
This is a murder that happened to a race of people and also a nation of people.
Thompson, who lives with his family in Oxford, Mississippi, is a senior writer for ESPN and author of several books, including Pappyland and The Cost of These Dreams.