For our last class, we read Nora Ephron’s “The Boston Photographs” and examined the images her essay refers to. For our next class, we will consider the photographs published in Jet magazine that depict the brutalization of Emmett Till.
One collector of civil rights memorabilia has provided an archive of the various issues of Jet magazine relevant to this discussion. Before you click through to view the images, please brace yourselves–these are extremely disturbing images.
You might also look at this compilation of newspaper articles following Emmett Till’s murder. At the bottom of the page, you can download the FBI report, which includes materials from the time of the incident and more recent reporting.
Taking a step back, the Wikipedia page could be a good place to get started to understand the events that led up to and that followed Till’s murder.
Reply here with a comment about the choice to publish these photographs. You might write about what motivated the choice, or even what Ephron would say based on what she wrote in “The Boston Photographs,” or how these images matter today in relation to the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Are there other sources you consulted that were helpful for you? Please share them with us in your comment.
