First published 2024
Wright Thompson grew up on a Mississippi farm just 23 miles from where Emmett Till died, yet he knew nothing about the murder until he left for college. In August 1955, fourteen-year-old Till was tortured and killed by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam in Money, Mississippi. The men were acquitted, then gave a false confession that concealed crucial facts about the crime. Thompson reveals that at least nine people participated in the four-hour torture inside a barn located in Township 22 North, Range 4 West. The cover-up began immediately and continues today. Thompson befriends Wheeler Parker, Till's friend who traveled with him from Chicago that summer and remains the last living person who knew Till well. Through Parker and other truth-seekers, Thompson maps the killing floor's exact location and explores how global forces converged on the Mississippi Delta to make this atrocity inevitable. This is ultimately a story about property, money, and power that implicates all Americans in confronting the country's deepest wound.
Genres: historical-fiction, 20th-century, crime, biography-memoir, african-american-historical-fiction, american-history
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: cover-up, investigative-journalism, true-crime
Setting: Chicago, Mississippi, Money, Township 22 North, Range 4 West
Period: 1955
430 pages · Hardcover · Penguin Press
Content warnings: racism, violence