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Death of Innocence

Aired January 10, 2003 - 13:39   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: "Death of Innocence," we're taking you back 47 years to a time none of us should ever forget. We're talking about the death of 14-year-old Emmett Till. While visiting relatives in muddy Mississippi, the black Chicago teen whistled in a store run by a white woman. The perception was that he had whistled at her. What later happened to Emmett Till would not only disturb and disrupt this country, but inspire the Civil Rights movement.
Stanley Nelson is the producer and director of the New PBS documentary, "The Murder of Emmett Till." He joins us from New York to talk about his project and a young boy's life story that refuses to weaken.

Good to see you, Stanley.

STANLEY NELSON, AUTHOR, "MURDER OF EMMETT TILL": Thank you. Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about why you decided to bring this story to the forefront, once again.

NELSON: Well, I thought it was an incredibly important story that was being lost, that so many people in the country had forgotten all about Emmett Till and its influence on the Civil Rights movement.

PHILLIPS: Do you think there ever will be justice for Emmett Till?

NELSON: Well, we're hoping that the case can be, at least, reinvestigated. There's has always been said that there were more than just the two men who later admitted doing the crime, that there were more people involved than just those two, and they've never been brought to justice. So we're hoping that maybe at least the case could be reopened and reinvestigated.

PHILLIPS: Has anyone come forward and say, you know, I do remember what happened that day or I was there or I do know someone that may know something?

NELSON: Sure. There's a couple of people in our film, who never testified at the trial. They were scared to testify, and they never testified on the -- at the trial. And I think there's probably a good number of other people who didn't testify at the trial.

I mean, you have to remember that these men came into Emmett Till's house -- Emmett Till's uncle's house -- in the middle of the night and took Emmett Till, without even trying to cover their faces. You know, so this wasn't the crime of the century. They weren't trying to hide it. They were very open about it. So -- and we're hoping that other people can come forward, too, and then maybe there can be a reinvestigation of the case.

PHILLIPS: All right. I want to set up this clip we're going to take a look at. It's of the man who you talked to, the man that actually pulled Emmett's body from the Mississippi River. And then following that, we're going to hear from Emmett's mother, when she got the news. This is a chilling description. Let's roll the clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

It was in a curve in a drift, and a foot was sticking up. And we tore into the drift and got to him and got him out. Then we carried him up to the landing and put him in the hearse.

Emmett's body had been weighed down with a 75-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. The boy was so badly beaten that Mose Wright could identify Emmett only by his father's ring. Mamie Till was in Chicago, surrounded by worried family and friends, when she was told that her only child was dead.

MAMIE TILL: Those words were like arrows sticking all over my body. My eyes were so full of tears, until I couldn't see. And when I began to make the announcement that Emmett had been found, and how he was found, the whole house began to scream and to cry. And that's when I realized that this was a load that I was going to have to carry. I wouldn't get any help carrying this load.

(END VIDEO CLIP)]

PHILLIPS: And Stanley, when I heard about your documentary, it was just a few days ago, that I called Mamie, hoping that she would come and talk to us and talk about this documentary. And hours later after I called, I found out that she had passed away. I would like for you to tell all of us what an amazing woman she was and how many years she fought for that justice for her son.

NELSON: Well, Mamie Till Mobley was the driving force in all the interest that there's ever been about Emmett Till's murder. She stated that she wanted the world to see what had happened to her son in Mississippi, and she insisted that Emmett be buried with an open casket. And 50,000 people came and viewed Emmett Till's remains before he was buried. She was just an incredible, incredible woman, and she just passed away Monday, so it's a great loss. She struggled for years to keep Emmett Till's memory alive and to let people know what had happened to Emmett. But I think one of the most amazing things about Mamie Till Mobley was that she did it with love and without bitterness. She was just one of the real heroes in this country.

PHILLIPS: Why should all of us never forget her or Emmett Till?

NELSON: Well, I think that there's a number of reasons. But you know, the reason that pops into my head is, you know, when you have someone like Trent Lott talking about the good old days, and I think that when you see the film, you see that those weren't the good old days for anybody. You know, when you see the bitterness that was inside Mylum (ph) and Bryant (ph), the two men who murdered Emmett Till, and the people who attended the trial, the jury at the trial, I don't think anybody, white or black, would want to go back to that and would think that were better off, back in those days. So I think it's really important that we remember, you know, what those days were really like.

PHILLIPS: Stanley Nelson, I tell you, if you see your documentary, you will know what it was like. "The Murder of Emmett Till, " it airs January 20th on PBS.

Sir, thank you so much for your time.

NELSON: I thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired January 10, 2003 - 13:39   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: "Death of Innocence," we're taking you back 47 years to a time none of us should ever forget. We're talking about the death of 14-year-old Emmett Till. While visiting relatives in muddy Mississippi, the black Chicago teen whistled in a store run by a white woman. The perception was that he had whistled at her. What later happened to Emmett Till would not only disturb and disrupt this country, but inspire the Civil Rights movement.
Stanley Nelson is the producer and director of the New PBS documentary, "The Murder of Emmett Till." He joins us from New York to talk about his project and a young boy's life story that refuses to weaken.

Good to see you, Stanley.

STANLEY NELSON, AUTHOR, "MURDER OF EMMETT TILL": Thank you. Good to see you.

PHILLIPS: Well, let's talk about why you decided to bring this story to the forefront, once again.

NELSON: Well, I thought it was an incredibly important story that was being lost, that so many people in the country had forgotten all about Emmett Till and its influence on the Civil Rights movement.

PHILLIPS: Do you think there ever will be justice for Emmett Till?

NELSON: Well, we're hoping that the case can be, at least, reinvestigated. There's has always been said that there were more than just the two men who later admitted doing the crime, that there were more people involved than just those two, and they've never been brought to justice. So we're hoping that maybe at least the case could be reopened and reinvestigated.

PHILLIPS: Has anyone come forward and say, you know, I do remember what happened that day or I was there or I do know someone that may know something?

NELSON: Sure. There's a couple of people in our film, who never testified at the trial. They were scared to testify, and they never testified on the -- at the trial. And I think there's probably a good number of other people who didn't testify at the trial.

I mean, you have to remember that these men came into Emmett Till's house -- Emmett Till's uncle's house -- in the middle of the night and took Emmett Till, without even trying to cover their faces. You know, so this wasn't the crime of the century. They weren't trying to hide it. They were very open about it. So -- and we're hoping that other people can come forward, too, and then maybe there can be a reinvestigation of the case.

PHILLIPS: All right. I want to set up this clip we're going to take a look at. It's of the man who you talked to, the man that actually pulled Emmett's body from the Mississippi River. And then following that, we're going to hear from Emmett's mother, when she got the news. This is a chilling description. Let's roll the clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

It was in a curve in a drift, and a foot was sticking up. And we tore into the drift and got to him and got him out. Then we carried him up to the landing and put him in the hearse.

Emmett's body had been weighed down with a 75-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. The boy was so badly beaten that Mose Wright could identify Emmett only by his father's ring. Mamie Till was in Chicago, surrounded by worried family and friends, when she was told that her only child was dead.

MAMIE TILL: Those words were like arrows sticking all over my body. My eyes were so full of tears, until I couldn't see. And when I began to make the announcement that Emmett had been found, and how he was found, the whole house began to scream and to cry. And that's when I realized that this was a load that I was going to have to carry. I wouldn't get any help carrying this load.

(END VIDEO CLIP)]

PHILLIPS: And Stanley, when I heard about your documentary, it was just a few days ago, that I called Mamie, hoping that she would come and talk to us and talk about this documentary. And hours later after I called, I found out that she had passed away. I would like for you to tell all of us what an amazing woman she was and how many years she fought for that justice for her son.

NELSON: Well, Mamie Till Mobley was the driving force in all the interest that there's ever been about Emmett Till's murder. She stated that she wanted the world to see what had happened to her son in Mississippi, and she insisted that Emmett be buried with an open casket. And 50,000 people came and viewed Emmett Till's remains before he was buried. She was just an incredible, incredible woman, and she just passed away Monday, so it's a great loss. She struggled for years to keep Emmett Till's memory alive and to let people know what had happened to Emmett. But I think one of the most amazing things about Mamie Till Mobley was that she did it with love and without bitterness. She was just one of the real heroes in this country.

PHILLIPS: Why should all of us never forget her or Emmett Till?

NELSON: Well, I think that there's a number of reasons. But you know, the reason that pops into my head is, you know, when you have someone like Trent Lott talking about the good old days, and I think that when you see the film, you see that those weren't the good old days for anybody. You know, when you see the bitterness that was inside Mylum (ph) and Bryant (ph), the two men who murdered Emmett Till, and the people who attended the trial, the jury at the trial, I don't think anybody, white or black, would want to go back to that and would think that were better off, back in those days. So I think it's really important that we remember, you know, what those days were really like.

PHILLIPS: Stanley Nelson, I tell you, if you see your documentary, you will know what it was like. "The Murder of Emmett Till, " it airs January 20th on PBS.

Sir, thank you so much for your time.

NELSON: I thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com