While the World Watched: A Birmingham Bombing Survivor Comes of Age during the Civil Rights Movement

When McKinstry was seven years old, Jet magazine published a photograph of Emmett Till’s mutilated face on the cover. Fourteen-year-old Till visited Mississippi from Chicago and said some “boyish and tasteless” things to a shopkeeper’s wife. In retaliation, the shopkeeper and his half-brother kidnapped Till from his home, tortured and killed him, and deposited his body into the Tallahatchie River. His body was discovered several days later, and officials “simply stuffed the dead, waterlogged body” into a coffin and shipped it back to Till’s mother in Chicago. When she reviewed the body, Mrs. Till insisted on holding an open-casket funeral so everyone could see the abuse and injustice her son had suffered.

The image made a huge impression on McKinstry, making her feel “that Black life is irrelevant, insignificant, worthless” (97). Till’s murderers were arrested but quickly found not guilty by the all-white jury. They went on to sell the story of the murder to Look magazine, which published it under the title “The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi.” During that time, it was common for white people to respond to violence against Black people with silence. Look’s article generated numerous letters to the editor, many of which voiced support for the murderers’ actions.