Cousins of civil-rights icon speak Thursday in Columbiana

March 23, 2015 at 12:05a.m.

COLUMBIANA

When 14-year-old Emmett Till took a train from his native Chicago to visit relatives in the Deep South, no one could have predicted he would be killed in so brutal a fashion that his death would help spark the modern civil-rights movement.

“I want to give them an opportunity to experience and meet living history — people who were there when this happened,” said Jackie Mercer, an English and American literature teacher at Crestview High School.

Mercer was referring to giving her students and others a chance to meet Simeon Wright and Wheeler Parker, cousins of Till, who was kidnapped in the early morning of Aug. 28, 1955, while visiting Wright and other relatives in Money, Miss. Parker and Wright were in the house when the kidnapping occurred.

A few days later, a fisherman found Till’s mutilated body in the Tallahatchie River. The crime shocked the nation and was a spark for the civil-rights era.

Wright and Parker will discuss their recollections of events before, during and after the killing in a presentation they are giving from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday in Crestview Local Schools Performing Arts Center, 44100 Crestview Road.

Till was unaware of certain southern customs when he whistled at a 21-year-old white woman named Carolyn Bryant, who, along with her husband, Roy Bryant, owned a small grocery store near Money. He was trying to be funny, but his action angered her husband when he found out later and led to the boy’s abduction and killing.

Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, were charged in the killing, but on Sept. 23, 1955, an all-white male jury in Sumner, Miss., acquitted them after 67 minutes of deliberations.

In an article in the Jan. 24, 1956, issue of Look magazine, both men confessed their parts in the killing and were paid more than $3,000 each to tell their stories.

A few years ago, Mercer attended Youngstown State University’s annual English Festival and met Chris Crowe, who wrote the 2003 book, “Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case.” Conversations with him piqued her interest, she noted.

Last June, Mercer attended a National Endowment of the Humanities workshop at Delta State University near Cleveland, Miss. The weeklong seminar, titled “The Most Southern Place on Earth: Music, History and Culture of the Mississippi Delta,” put her in touch with Parker, who was a panelist.

“Last year, I taught my classes the Crowe book, but I felt that I needed to know about the case, but also needed to know more about the civil-rights movement,” she explained. “I knew at that point what I needed to do for my kids.”

Earlier this month, Mercer also invited to her classroom Dale Killinger, an FBI agent who was instrumental in reopening the Till case in 2005.

Mercer added that she also received a few grants, which helped to make Wright and Parker’s local appearance possible.

“Even though a lot of racial progress has been made since the infamous killing nearly 60 years ago, much hatred and intolerance remain in our society. So having Parker and Wright share their stories can be a tool for the students and others to use to re-examine some of their attitudes and beliefs to better themselves,” Mercer continued.

“My kids were shocked to read about Emmett Till. They can’t understand the level of hatred that would allow these men to kill a 14-year-old boy,” she added. “I’m [also] giving the kids one thing they will remember and that will stick with them.”

Penny Wells, director of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past, echoed that view, saying she hopes attendees will learn more about a piece of history that on some levels resonates today.

Perhaps that will help them more thoroughly understand how many black people feel about purported police brutality, especially in light of recent high-profile shootings of unarmed black men by white police officers in Ferguson, Mo., Cleveland and New York City, said Wells, who also is taking 11 Youngstown high-school students on Sojourn to the Past later this week.

“I hope people will come away with more tolerance and acceptance of those who are different from them and realize we need equal justice for all Americans,” Wells added.

Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past is a nonprofit organization that takes Youngstown high school students on a journey to the civil-rights sites in the South.

Wells also praised Mercer for her efforts in bringing Parker and Wright to the area.

“Jackie Mercer is doing an absolutely marvelous job in educating her students about Emmett Till and the horror of his kidnapping and murder,” she said. “She put forth the energy, the effort and raised the money to make this happen. It’s a one-woman show.”