The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

Till’s great-uncle Moses visited his daughter in the summer of 1955 and planned to return to Mississippi with Wheeler Parker, Jr., his grandson. The plan was for Parker to spend the last weeks of his summer vacation in the Mississippi country. Since Parker was Till’s best friend and Till was seeking independence, he begged his mother to go with them. Thus, Moses escorted Parker and Till on the train from Chicago to his home in the Delta. 

At one time, Moses owned his own land. However, the drop in cotton prices forced him back into being a sharecropper. Thompson comments that Moses and his immediate family were living in two worlds: They followed the same routines and did the same work as their enslaved ancestors, yet they were partaking of modern conveniences, such as refrigerators, washing machines, and radios. Moses had moved to work for a plantation where he was paid a reasonable wage after being underpaid at another. If not for the decline in cotton prices, or if not for the cotton subsidies, Thompson notes, Moses would not have been in that location, and Till would not have visited.

When the killers invaded the Wrights’ home, Moses was forced to accompany them into the bedrooms. He was there when Till was told to get dressed. The killers warned Moses not to identify them or else they would exact murderous revenge. When Moses followed them out the door, he begged them to punish Till right there and not take him away. He heard a female voice identify Till as the “right” person. Once the killers left, Moses went into town seeking help. No one answered at Bryant’s grocery even though he thought there were people inside. He feared for Till’s life.

In the following days, Moses was called upon to identify the mutilated body of Till. The experience deeply traumatized him. He sat on his porch moaning afterward. His wife left the state immediately after the abduction. Moses stayed on his property guarding it. Despite more threats of racial violence, he made the courageous decision to testify during the trial. There is an iconic picture of him pointing at the killers in court. Three days after he testified, he had to leave Mississippi, leaving behind his beloved dog and a way of life that suited him. 

In Chicago, Moses never drove a car again, nor did he ever fish or hunt again. He was unfairly accused of not doing enough to stop the kidnapping, an allegation that pained him. In highlighting the long-term effects on Moses, Thompson speaks to The Intersection of Personal and Collective History.

As Till’s best friend, neighbor, and cousin, Parker knew Till well and was with him in Mississippi. Parker was also present with Till and the others at Bryant’s Grocery in Money when Till whistled at Carolyn Bryant. Until that whistle, Parker reports that nothing inappropriate occurred. 

When the killers came hunting for Till, they first went into Parker’s bedroom and shone a light in his face. He heard them take Till away and was terrified. Moses Wright quickly sent him to a relative, who drove him to the train station that night. They missed the train and had to return for a long night in Mississippi. Early the next morning, Parker boarded a train for Chicago. White terrorists came a few days later looking for him. The quick escape most likely saved his life.

It was painful for him to see Till’s mother, Mamie. Before she died, she named him the official spokesperson for the family and asked him to keep her son’s memory alive. Becoming a minister in Argo, Illinois, Parker has taken that charge seriously. He is the last living witness to the incident at the grocery store and the kidnapping. When he speaks at events honoring Till, he speaks about his personal loss. Decades later, the telling of the horrible tale causes Parker great emotional pain. It forces him to relive the shattering experience. He thinks about Till every day.

Thirteen years after the murder, Parker returned to Mississippi with his wife, Marvel. From then on, he returned frequently. He and his wife have lobbied hard for monuments to honor Till. During the Biden administration, the National Park Service announced the creation of a federally funded park in the Delta that would highlight the history of racism in the region. Parker was invited to the White House for the announcement and introduced the president. The Emmett Till Interpretive Center was able to purchase the barn and make it a memorial. These accomplishments occurred because of The Courage of Resistance shown by individuals like Parker and his wife.

At 18 years old in August 1955, Reed lived with his family in tenement housing and worked for Clint Shurden picking cotton and helping with other chores. On his way to a country store early on a Sunday morning, Reed cut across Leslie Milam’s farm and heard a pickup truck approaching. He saw four white men in the cab and three Black men in the back with a “terrified Black child” (6). He saw them enter the barn. For the next two hours, Reed heard the desperate calls and cries of Till. Toward the end, Till was screaming for his mother. One of the killers, J.W. Milam, came out of the barn during the torture to get water at the well. Hidden, Reed saw him. After Till was killed, Reed saw the men bring the truck into the barn and exit with Till’s body. He also saw them put cotton seed down in the barn to soak up the blood and destroy evidence.

Despite the threats of violence, Reed decided to testify in court against the killers. After having accused a white man of murder, he had to leave his home and his girlfriend, whom he would never see again. To escape, Reed walked six miles in the dark on a Friday night to a waiting car. In that car was Medgar Evers and a congressman. They drove him to the Memphis airport, and he flew to Chicago. Once there, the congressman instructed the police to ensure his safety. Nevertheless, soon thereafter, a reporter for the Jackson News came to his residence to interview him. Thompson argues that this was a signal to Reed that he could be reached in the North. Under enormous emotional strain, Reed had a mental health episode. He recovered and returned to Mississippi to testify again before a grand jury considering indicting J.W. and Roy Bryant for kidnapping. However, that jury failed to indict them. Thereafter, Reed changed his last name to Louis and “vanished into working-class Chicago” (48).

When the FBI re-opened the case decades later, an agent asked him to return to Mississippi. He did so. At that time, 50 years after the murder, Louis was astonished at all the changes to the Delta. He was saddened to see that only the barn, the place of torture and murder, remained unchanged. Louis missed his home in Mississippi terribly. He loved the woods and the blues and was not as comfortable in an urban environment. He died in 2013. Thompson honors Reed’s story for the personal cost he paid for his courage.

Till’s cousin Simeon noticed that Till had gained some weight and did not appear ready for the rigors of cotton picking when he arrived at his home. Simeon hung out with Parker and Till. In town one night, Till lit some fireworks. Simeon and the others told him not to do that again, as it angered white people. Observing his cousin, Simeon saw his own meekness reflected in his boldness. Simeon recognized that he had been trained to be quiet and deferential. In Money at Bryant’s Grocery, Simeon went back into the store when Till was in it alone with Carolyn Bryant. He did not observe anything inappropriate between them. Till said goodbye to her without adding the customary and deferential “ma’am.”

On the night that Till was kidnapped, Simeon shared a bed with him. He thus witnessed the kidnapping. The killers told him to go back to sleep, and they ordered Till to dress. Simeon was terrified and knew that the command for Till to dress meant that the kidnappers were taking Till. He heard his mother plead for Till’s life to no avail. After the murder, he and his brother, Maurice, were hidden away for a few days with a neighbor. They returned home after a couple of days to be with their father, who was guarding the house. Soon thereafter, he and his family had to flee from Mississippi amid threats of racial violence.

For a period after the killing, Simeon hated all white people. He eventually realized that “hate destroys the hater” (18). After that epiphany, he got involved in the cause to keep Till’s memory alive and expose the truth of what happened in 1955. To do so, he worked with white people, such as Weems, and others whom he did not trust. Maurice was falsely accused of telling Roy Bryant about the incident with Carolyn. That accusation haunted Maurice, and the brothers lost touch. Maurice later died on the streets of San Francisco with Simeon’s name and address in his pocket. 

Heartbroken at the news of his brother’s death, Simeon flew out to identify his body. Simeon died in 2017. Before his death, he returned to the site of the crime many times. In highlighting the devastation to so many individuals from this death and the lies that surrounded it, Thompson exposes how Till’s death was both a national scandal and a deeply personal tragedy for those who knew and loved him.

Till’s mother, Mamie, raised him on her own after her husband, Louis, died. She worried about the balance of granting Till independence and keeping him safe that summer of 1955. At his request, she allowed him to pay her bills in Chicago. She also had him co-sign for an automobile loan to teach him responsibility. Initially, Mamie did not want to let Till go to Mississippi. She was concerned that he would not conform to the strict racist codes of behavior there. He begged her, and she relented. She had the first real talk about race with her son and instructed him on how to behave in the South. On the day he left, she packed him and the others food for the trip.

After she learned that her son was missing in the South, she was the victim of several cruel hoaxes. People would call her and tell her that Till had been found and was safe. When a Chicago newspaper got word of the recovery of his body, a reporter called her best friend, Ollie Williams, and asked her to break the news to Mamie. After learning of the murder, Mamie sent a telegram to President Eisenhower asking for justice for her son. She also contacted union leaders, who got in touch with powerful people. 

The authorities in Mississippi did not want to release the body, as it provided evidence of torture. She demanded Till’s body, and they released it on the condition that the coffin remain sealed. When Mamie told the funeral director to open it, he hesitated, given the agreement, but relented in the face of her insistence. Mamie kept the casket open so that the world could see what had been done to her son. In her grief, Mamie exhibited courage.

Following the funeral, Mamie worked hard to keep her son’s memory alive. She went on speaking tours to raise awareness. When she was near the end of her life, she asked Wheeler Parker, Jr., to continue that work. Mamie retired from her position as a public-school teacher in Chicago in 1983. She died in 2003. Before she died, she was able to preview some of the documentary about the barn. Mamie’s commitment to publicizing the crime exemplifies the courage of those who stood up to the racist system and society of the US.

The two men who abducted Till that August night, J.W. and Roy, were half-brothers. Both men were uneducated and poor, growing up on the poor side of Highway 35. They believed that “they deserved something that had been taken away” (107). Roy purchased the grocery store in Money in 1953. With their lowly status dependent solely on their skin color, they had a reputation for racism. J.W. had previously been arrested for assault and battery and was known to have murdered Black Americans in the past without any consequence. Both were bootleggers.

J.W. came to Bryant’s house to collect him on the night of the abduction. The two men kidnapped Till at gunpoint and threatened Moses Wright to keep quiet. They proceeded with others to take Till to the barn in Drew, where they tortured him for two hours and then killed him. They used a gun to pistol-whip him. They did this while the child cried out for his mother. Afterward, they tied a cotton-gin fan to Till’s neck and disposed of his body in the river. At one point during the torture, J.W. emerged from the barn to go to the well. That is when Willie Reed, who was hiding between the barn and the road, spotted him.

While at least five others were involved in the murder, only J.W. and Roy were arrested and charged with the murder. The trial, however, was a farce. The defense attorney made the trial about the defense of segregation and witnesses, such as Carolyn Bryant, who lied about what had happened at the grocery story. The all-white jury had multiple ties with the defendants and adopted their perspective. The two men were acquitted despite the testimony of Moses and Reed. A grand jury later declined to indict them for kidnapping despite their earlier confession to that crime. The men were released on November 9, 1955. Here, Thompson highlights the racist nature of this killing and cover-up.

For money, the two men confessed to a magazine reporter. However, they did not reveal the truth about the details of the crime, as they kept Leslie Milam and his barn out of the story. That account caused the barn to disappear from history for decades. Their admission, however, caused the two men to be ostracized by the white community. No one would rent J.W. land, and he lived in shacks with no running water. Roy was forced to sell his grocery store two months after the murder, as no sharecroppers would shop there. The infamous store closed in the 1980s and was left there to rot. 

Carolyn divorced Roy in 1975 and won sole custody of their children. Toy ran a little store in Ruleville but was also poor. He died of cancer and diabetes in 1994, while J.W. died of cancer at the age of 61. In his final days, Roy feared that the authorities were coming for him. He finally gave another interview to a college student, admitting to the killing and noting that Carolyn was present outside the Wrights’ house that night. In the interview, he said the n-word “at least one hundred times” (334). In Mamie Till’s view, both of these killers got the death penalty. They died horrible deaths from cancer and were ostracized.

J.W. Milam’s brother, Leslie, purchased the land on which the barn stood on credit from Ben Sturdivant, a wealthy planter, in 1953. Leslie was one of the murderers present in the barn that August night. However, he was never charged with the crime. Before his death, he confessed his involvement in the murder to a preacher. His wife, Frances, claimed not to have heard anything that night. An FBI agent finds that claim incredible, as it was summer in Mississippi, so windows would have been open.

After the murder, Sturdivant kicked the Milams off the land. Like Roy Bryant and J.W., Leslie was ostracized by the white community. He sold used cars and drugs to make money. He died at the age of 46 of cancer, 19 years after the murder.

The wife of Roy Bryant, Carolyn was the woman at whom Till whistled. Her version of the events that day in the store does not match the accounts of other witnesses or with the facts. Bryant claimed that Till grabbed her hand in the store when he paid for his items. Fearful, she said that she ran from the store and that Till then grabbed her hips. According to Carolyn, Till told her at this point that he had had white women before. She said that she screamed and ran to retrieve her pistol from the car. At that point, Till whistled. Thompson debunks this version of events, noting its impossibility given Till’s stutter and the contradictory accounts of other witnesses. This is the version of events that Carolyn told in court and wrote about in her memoir.

Carolyn denied being present outside the Wrights’ home on the night of the abduction, yet Moses Wright said that he heard a female voice identify Till as the correct person. At the end of his life, Roy also claimed that Carolyn was outside the Wright house that night. Decades later, the FBI put together a case against her in the Till abduction and gave the file to the local prosecutor. When that prosecutor presented the case to the grand jury, it failed to indict Carolyn. The FBI blames the prosecutor for that outcome. Until she died in 2023, Carolyn was hounded at times. She kept to herself and divorced Roy in 1975. She never recanted her testimony and remained defiant.

Born in the Mississippi Delta, Dickerson was one of the children who integrated the Drew public school system. Her parents were committed to educating their children and took the necessary risks to do so. Her family’s livestock was stolen, and her house was shot. They were then thrown off the plantation. Through her story, Thompson highlights both the prevalent racism in the South and the courage of those who resisted it. Luckily, a northern Quaker charity bought a house for the family in Drew. She and her siblings went on to receive a university education. Dickerson then returned to Drew.

In Drew, Dickerson now runs several non-profits, one of which involves keeping Till’s memory alive. She told Thompson that it is essential for Drew to confront its past, as it is the only way forward. Elected the Sunflower County Supervisor, Dickerson considers it her mission to teach people that Till was killed in their community. She was heavily involved in the ceremonies surrounding the dedication of the barn and the new national park in Sumner, Mississippi.

As the director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Weems’s job is to ensure that people do not forget about Till. Thompson spent hours with Weems driving through the Delta. Weems explained that the first sign placed on the banks of the Tallahatchie River to honor Till was stolen. The second one was shot 317 times. Finally, a bullet-proof sign was placed there, and a “a group of white nationalists gathered on the site to film a recruitment video” (16). Thompson demonstrates via this story that evidence of the past remains in the present: Racism is still a live and pressing issue. It has been a long fight to tell the truth about what happened to Till in the Delta. In his work, Weems became friendly with Simeon Wright, who considered him a trusted white person. Weems was heavily involved in the efforts to create a national park in Sumner and the purchase of the barn.