Book Review: “The Barn” by Wright Thompson

I heard about this book through my recent reading of nonfiction books and scrolling endlessly through nonfiction pages on publishing house websites. I think I have always been interested in the story of Emmett Till because there seems to be a lot of details that people remember differently, or details that have simply been left out - but almost 70 years' on, the story is more relevant than ever. This is not just because of the terrors of racism, but because of the fact we often forget that this was a child. Wright Thompson does a brilliant job of piecing together a story that is much bigger than a horrific night in 1955 - it was in fact, the cradle of American Racism.

Thompson unpacks how the Mississippi Delta in the 1950s was a unique flashpoint for racial and social tensions, both locally rooted and nationally felt. By examining the deeply ingrained racial hierarchies and customs of the region, he reveals how these factors, compounded by national pressures from the civil rights movement, set the stage for Till's murder. This murder was not just an isolated act of brutality; it was deeply intertwined with broader socio-political forces in America that were pushing against centuries-old racial norms​.

This does not mean the author wants us to understand the murder, but the author instead wants us to be horrified by the attitudes of the people who were involved with it. We often think that the Civil Rights' Movement started where it ended in 1964, but actually there is a whole history to unpack. The author uses freedom fighters such as Medgar Evers to create this timeline, showing that Emmett Till's murder was actually the reaction of white people to the oncoming wave of equality which they strictly did not want.

A significant focus of the book is the intentional forgetting and suppressing of Till’s story within Mississippi and beyond. Thompson investigates the long-lasting impact of this erasure on both personal and collective memories. This selective memory has allowed communities to avoid reckoning with their past, perpetuating a legacy of silence and repression that has hindered healing and understanding.

Thompson reflects on how this cultural amnesia has reshaped the truth over time, making it difficult for younger generations to fully understand the weight of what occurred​. When you actually start reading the research he has done, it becomes a case of disbelief because you know what you have been taught is not even half of the story. The horrific treatment of Emmett Till at the hands of these monsters is not the whole story, but there is a lot more to be unearthed that has not been - and it's not even on Wikipedia.

Thompson explores how Till’s murder affected not only his immediate family but also generations of African American families who lived in constant fear of similar violence. Through narratives passed down within families, he shows how this collective trauma has created a legacy of pain and resilience. By examining how families like Till’s continued to bear the emotional and psychological scars of such events, Thompson underscores the deeply personal impacts of racial violence on individual lives and family histories​.

We get the narratives of family members, especially Emmett Till's mother who spent a long time fighting for equality after the murder of her son. It seems like the murder grew into a representation of treatment that had to change, but to the close family it was still a child that they had lost because others had taken his life. There is a huge difference between what Emmett Till has come to represent in the Civil Rights' Movement, and what Emmett Till meant to those closest to him. They spent days looking for his body and when they did find him - he had been beaten to death so badly he was unrecognisable.

All in all, Thompson examines the individuals linked to Till's story with a nuanced approach, avoiding simplistic characterisations to uncover the intricate mix of motivations, fears, and ethical conflicts influencing their actions. His portrayal includes not only the perpetrators but also passive bystanders, emphasising how each person, whether through actions or inaction, was impacted by or contributed to the tragedy. This layered analysis demonstrates that understanding Till’s story requires acknowledging the varied roles and responses of all involved.