A talk on the South's past

A single photograph of the worn-down, abandoned grocery store in which Emmett Till allegedly "wolf-whistled" at a white woman 45 years ago set the tone for a Saturday morning breakfast and discussion, entitled "Mississippi Murder: A Fifty-Year Haunting," at the White Dog Cafe. As part of the Penn Humanities Forum's week-long "Human Nature-Human Rights" series of seminars and events, journalist Paul Hendrickson read excerpts from a book he is currently writing on seven Mississippi law enforcement officials of the 1950s and '60s. Hendrickson, who has been a staff writer for The Washington Post since 1977 and is currently teaching a writing course at Penn, addressed a crowd of about 30. He recalled the story of Till, a 14-year-old black teenager from Chicago who was brutally murdered during a visit to Mississippi for reputedly making advances at a white woman. The grocery store in which Till allegedly harassed Carolyn Bryant has long since been abandoned, but it still stands today in Money, Miss., a potent reminder of what Hendrickson referred to as "these five decades of change -- and lack of change -- in American race relations." Hendrickson began his account by pointing to the grocery store in the picture and stating that, "The civil rights movement in America, as we know it, began right there at that front door." He proceeded to paint a vivid picture of this politically and emotionally charged time in the deep South, bringing his audience back to an era often regarded as one of the most divisive and revolutionary in American history. The crowd at this event was comprised largely of Hendrickson's own relatives, as well as older Philadelphia residents and several of Hendrickson's students. While the event attracted a fairly small crowd, those in attendance were clearly not disappointed. "Hearing Professor Hendrickson read [his account] is riveting. You can feel his passion and his emotion so much," said College sophomore Susie Cook, one of Hendrickson's students. "He makes it come so alive, because it's real." As part of his research for the book, Hendrickson contacted people who were involved in the Emmett Till tragedy, including one of the policemen who fished Till's dead body out of the Tallahatchie River three days after the young man had been abducted. In addition to speaking directly to the people who played a role in the case, Hendrickson spent a considerable amount of time interviewing their descendants and seeing how their actions affected future generations. Referring to his encounters with the grandson of one of these policemen, Hendrickson said his book would be "about how the gene of bigotry mutated as it came to the year 2000." The racism and bigotry so pervasive throughout this time period, Hendrickson maintained, still exists today. At the same time, however, Hendrickson reminded his audience that not everyone living in Mississippi at the time of the trial was bigoted. "I'm not doing my moral job as a writer if I tell the story monolithically," Hendrickson said, giving some examples of people who spoke out against the actions of Till's murderers. A short question-and-answer period followed Hendrickson's talk, and many people in attendance went on to participate in a walking tour of Philadelphia, which was offered in conjunction with the morning's event.