By William R.K Lund
Keith A. Beauchamp has been speaking and giving lectures on the 1955 murder of black teenager Emmett Louis Till in Mississippi for over 20 years.
He retold the grisly story again at Edgewood College for the 12th annual Hatheway Lecture on April 10
Beauchamp spoke about the life and death of Till and the injustice that surrounded it. “If we forget our past, history will repeat itself,” he said.
“I hope that students will be inspired to initiate change and walk away understanding the importance of the Emmett Till Case to the ongoing freedom movement of today.”
He advised students. “Take a stand against justice, understand change accept change and embrace change.”
Beauchamp a filmmaker
Beauchamp is the executive producer and host of Investigation Discovery’s crime reality series “The Injustice Files” and the producer of the film “Till.”
Andrew Witt, host of the lecture series and a history professor at Edgewood, said Beauchamp was passionate about the murder.
“We’ve brought a lot of veterans from the Civil Rights era to Edgewood over the years and so I thought maybe let’s do something a bit different and bring a filmmaker who is also an activist).”
Beauchamp shows that history isn’t just confined to the past, Witt said. That is “illustrated by the numerous young unarmed Black men killed each year in this country,” Witt said. “Bottom line, the past influences the present.”
A gruesome story
In 1955, Mamie Till Mobley of Chicago sent her 14-year-old son, Emmett, to the South to visit his relatives.
While in Money, Miss., Emmett and some cousins allegedly whistled at a white woman named Carolyn Bryant.
Three days later, Emmett was taken from his uncle’s house by Roy Bryant and his half- brother, J.W. Milam. Till was beaten and killed, his body found floating in the Tallahatchie River, tied to a 75-pound fan.
At the funeral, Mobley defied Mississippi authorities and revealed her son’s badly disfigured face to the world. A photograph of Till’s brutalized face appeared in newspapers and magazines around the country, sparking outrage.
Ultimately, Bryant and Milam were tried and acquitted by all-white jury. On May 10, 2004, the United States Department of Justice re-opened the Till case, citing Beauchamp’s documentary “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till” as a reason.
In May of 2005, Emmett’s body was exhumed. In 2006, the FBI turned over their evidence to a district attorney in Mississippi. In February 2007, a grand jury decided against indicting the remaining suspects, ending the case for good.
Beauchamp told the Edgewood audience that the case was reopened because there was evidence that 14 people were involved in the kidnaping and murder, and at the time of the reopening, five of the men were still alive.
But the case was ultimately derailed because of discrepancies between the people who were tried and the number of people thought to be actually involved in the slaying, he said.
Till case absorbs Beauchamp
Beauchamps has built a career around the Till case. For example, he is a frequent lecturer.
“I’ve been public speaking and giving lectures on the Till murder for over 20 years and had the pleasure of sharing my journey nationally and internationally to many educational institutions,” Beauchamp said. “In 2009, I was the keynote speaker for the state of Wisconsin’s MLK celebration at the Capitol Rotunda.”
Beauchamp said public speaking is a great way to impact an audience.
“We are a see and touch generation, so in order for people to believe in something, you really have to reach them in a personable way.”
In an article titled “Murder He Wrote” by Sara Altermen, Beauchamp described his first encounter with the Till photograph when he was only 10. “It shocked me. I was looking on one side [of the magazine] and here was this angelic face of Emmett Till, and on the other side was this disfigured face of Emmett Till.
“I couldn’t believe that someone that young could be killed for whistling at a white woman. But I don’t think I really understood at the time what this picture was really about. I didn’t understand the depth of it.”
Beachamp moved to New York in the fall of 1997 for a career in filmmaking. In 1999, he founded Till Freedom Come Productions, a company designed to create socially significant projects to educate and entertain its viewers.
Beauchamp has since been featured on various programs, such as Good Morning America, 60 Minutes, MSNBC, ABC, BBC. He has also been mentioned in publications around the world including Washington Post, USA Today, The New York Times, Associated Press, and many others.
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