28 August 2012 On this day in 1955, an innocent young man named
Emmett Till was murdered in Money, Mississippi for allegedly
whistling at a white woman. This event embodied all that was
wrong with America in that day on the subject of race. On this
same day in 1963, Rev. Martin Luther King delivered his famous
“Dream” speech before an unprecedented congregation of people in
Washington, D.C. His speech articulated all that was right in
the hearts of people who longed for change. Five years later, he
was murdered for “whistling” for Civil Rights, igniting riots
across America. These historic events shaped my life ever after.
I was only four years old in 1955; too young to understand
anything other than the admonishments of my parents about the
South from which my forbears had fled. Yet, as Emmett Till’s
mother said: “When people saw what had happened to my son, men
stood up who had never stood up before. People became vocal who
had never vocalized before. Emmett’s death was the opening of
the civil rights movem