The State of Mississippi…and the Face of Emmett Till
Mrs. Mobley quite literally exposed that truth to the world, insisting that Emmett be put on view in an open casket for four days. The undertaker dressed Emmett in a suit and attempted to piece his poor head together, but the truth was ineradicable. Jet magazine published photos. It was a grisly publicity stunt–carried out by a grieving mother no less–but it succeeded in turning one of the tumblers that unlocked the civil rights movement. Just three months later, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama.
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Given the didactic mission of The State of Mississippi…and the Face of Emmett Till, it’s to be expected that certain passages will be stilted or contrived. And they are. The script is structured less for flow than for history. In effect it’s two plays covering many of the same events–and making many of the same points–first from Mobley’s perspective as they were unfolding, then from the vantage point of the trial at which Emmett’s murderers were so obscenely acquitted. Either one of these plays might have been sufficient; to give us both at one sitting is redundant and tiring.
