The Chicago Project

Marathon Night #1

12/8/07

 

The class starts out with Mr. Wilson asking all the students to write down all the words that they’ve either heard others called, or called other people. These are words that pertain to race, social class, sex and sexual preference. You wouldn’t believe some of the words that kids their age have heard just from their peers. Not including what the media had imported to their homes and brains.

A few of the students are reluctant to write down these words, for fear of getting in trouble, and for fear of what their peers around them will think of the things they are writing down or saying. But yet they still manage to come up with more than just a few words.

And the shocking thing is that the students admit that they’ve heard all of the words at school, and that these are only about 25% of the nasty-degrading words that they’ve ever heard in their lives.

 

Now we start the video “The Murder of Emmett Till”. He was murdered in 1955 in Money, Mississippi for apparently whistling at an “attractive white woman”. Emmett was 14 years old when he was attacked and murdered.

The significance of the lynching of Emmett Till is that it sparked a nation. And 100 days later Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus, which sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott. And when asked why she would not give up her seat, she responded, “I just could not quit thinking about that black boy from Chicago.”

We pause the video and Mr. Wilson passes out a journal which asks the students to respond to the following question, from what they’ve learnd so far in the class.

Imagine that you were growing up in America during the time of slavery and segregation. Based upon what you have learned so far in this class, white a letter to a friend from the perspective that YOU are a racist. Be specific. What do you believe about the nature and behavior of blacks and whites that justifies your position as a racist that blacks should be segregated from whites? How far would you be willing to go (meaning how much violence would you be willing to use) to make sure that the races STAYED segregated? BE SPECIFIC.

This is a very thought provoking journal, and only one of many to come. He tells them that these journals may be explicit, and wants to know exactly what they have to say on the matter.

He asks if any students want to share what they have written, and one student cautiously raises his hand, and volunteers to read his letter. His only thing is that he doesn’t want to say the “bad” words that he wrote in his letter, and bleeps out them out. Another student says that he would not actually go to the length of killing someone, but rather beating them until no one could tell that they were once black. Keep in mind, these are not things these students would normally do, but rather their character of the white racist that they are pretending to be.

Before going any further, Mr. Wilson offers the students the chance go get lots of snacks, and everyone rushes forward to get things to eat. There is a variety of things to choose from, including macaroni-and-cheese, fruit, chips and cookies.

Now we get into watching the movie, and the students sit back and enjoy their snacks, while learning about the story of Emmett Till.

When you listen to Mamie Till’s voice tell the story of her only son’s death, and her ordeal, you can feel the goose-bumps go up and down your skin. She tells the story that no one should ever have to go through, but you can’t help but feel a small piece of her pain as she re-counts for us the things that happened back in August of 1955. 50,000 people in Chicago seen for themselves the horror that was bestowed on the Till family solely for the reason that Emmett whistled at a white woman.

After the video was done, Mr. Wilson passed out the lyrics to a song sung by Bob Dylan, “The Death of Emmett Till” and another journal, and asked the students to write about the following subject:

“Write about the following questions: Consider what you have just learned about Emmett Till. What attitudes did his killers have? Do you think students here at our school have some of the same attitudes? Describe those attitudes. What will you do the next time you hear someone expressing those kids of attitudes? (Make your response a memorial to Emmett).

“The Death of Emmett Till” by Bob Dylan:

‘Twas down I Mississippi not so long ago,

When a young boy from Chicago town stepped through a Southern door,

This boy’s dreadful tragedy I can still remember well,

The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up

They said they had a reason, but I can’t remember what.

They tortured him and did some evil things to repeat

There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a bloody red rain

And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain

The reason that they killed him and I’m sure it ain’t no lie,

was just for the fun of killin’ him and to watch him slowly die.

And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial

Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till.

But on the jury there were men who helped the brother commit this awful crime

And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.

I saw the morning papers but I could not bear to see

The smiling brothers walkin’ down the courthouse stairs

For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free

While Emmett’s body floats the foam of a Jim Crow Southern sea.

If you can’t speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that’s so unjust

Your eyes are filled with dead men’s dirt, your mind is filled with dust

Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow

For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just another reminder to remind your fellow man

That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan

But if all of us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give

We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live.

Mr. Wilson puts on another piece of the documentary, which is Mamie talking about what happened after Emmett’s death, and the trial. She talks about how she was able to not hate the two men who killed her sons, and how she placed them in the hands of God. While this section of the documentary was playing, Mr. Wilson passed out informational packets on different pieces of literature. After which, the students were given a 10 minute break, and he showed them something spectacular, which they would “never forget”.