S01:E04 Manhunt

[AgentRXS]

Quote

A historic trial begins, and on the eve of her testimony, Mamie must face the three people responsible for her son’s murder, while also facing some ugly truths in the Jim Crow South.

Original Air Date: January 13, 2022

[Spartan Girl]

The sight of their killers being allowed to bring their little kids in the courtroom to show themselves as family men was nauseating. What really got me was how Mamie couldn’t help at softening as the little kids, until she saw Carolyn Bryant looking at her. The audacity of that bitch. 🤬🤬🤬

Poor Uncle Moses. Some people on social media were pretty harsh on how he let Emmett get taken, but they neglect to realize that this was the Jim Crow South. They were armed. What could he have done? He was completely powerless; if he tried to stop them, they would have killed him and the rest of the family too. And it’s obvious that he never forgave himself for any of it. That’s probably why he took such a risk to testify in court.

[Artsda]

I don't feel much sympathy for Moses. I get the letting him be taken, I don't get the doing nothing until the next day. Just sitting there waiting for him to return or the men to bring him back. If he acted initially after they drove off maybe something could have been different. The he did what the Sherriff wanted and was going to bury Emmett, it was his sons that had more strength to stand up against that.

Watching the luxuries of the killers sitting there so carefree, then just so smugly walking past Mamie & Moses outside was infuriating. 

[Spartan Girl]

9 hours ago, Artsda said:

I don't feel much sympathy for Moses. I get the letting him be taken, I don't get the doing nothing until the next day. Just sitting there waiting for him to return or the men to bring him back. If he acted initially after they drove off maybe something could have been different. The he did what the Sherriff wanted and was going to bury Emmett, it was his sons that had more strength to stand up against that.

 Not disagreeing with that last bit. But if he’d acted sooner, would it really have made a difference? We saw how corrupt the sheriff and law enforcement are. They were more concerned about covering it up than anything else. Would they really have tried to do anything had Moses gone to them sooner? Or, if Moses had gotten a bunch of guys to try to chase after the car, the killers certainly would have twisted it into accusing them of assault and who do you think the cops would have believed?

[AntFTW]

On 1/13/2022 at 10:02 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Poor Uncle Moses. Some people on social media were pretty harsh on how he let Emmett get taken, but they neglect to realize that this was the Jim Crow South. They were armed. What could he have done? He was completely powerless; if he tried to stop them, they would have killed him and the rest of the family too. And it’s obvious that he never forgave himself for any of it. That’s probably why he took such a risk to testify in court.

Absolutely! Mose was in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. The best scenario I could think of (in the safety and comfort of my house in 2022 rather than the Jim Crow South in the 50s) would have been to put Emmett on a train back to Chicago immediately and truthfully everyone else in that house should have fled somewhere else for the time being.

Edited January 16, 2022 by AntFTW

[secnarf]

15 minutes ago, AntFTW said:

Absolutely! Mose was in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" situation. The best scenario I could think of (in the safety and comfort of my house in 2022 rather than the Jim Crow South in the 50s) would have been to put Emmett on a train back to Chicago immediately and truthfully everyone else in that house should have fled somewhere else for the time being.

He might have done, had the boys told him - but Emmett specifically asked them not to tell him, as he didn't want to get in trouble. There were four days between the event at the store and Emmett's death, so plenty of time to get him out of there.

But yeah, by the time they came that night, Mose didn't have any good options, and Emmett's fate was already sealed. Even today, if someone came to my house like that with a gun looking for someone, my only two options would be to fight, get shot and have them take the person anyways, or let them take the person, and live with the guilt.

[AntFTW]

8 hours ago, secnarf said:

He might have done, had the boys told him - but Emmett specifically asked them not to tell him, as he didn't want to get in trouble. There were four days between the event at the store and Emmett's death, so plenty of time to get him out of there.

I don't disagree. Admittedly, I couldn’t remember as I was writing that previous post whether or not the boys had agreed not to tell the adults about the incident.

Edited January 16, 2022 by AntFTW

[AntFTW]

7 minutes ago, secnarf said:

But yeah, by the time they came that night, Mose didn't have any good options, and Emmett's fate was already sealed. Even today, if someone came to my house like that with a gun looking for someone, my only two options would be to fight, get shot and have them take the person anyways, or let them take the person, and live with the guilt.

Right! You put it in the best way possible. By the time these men showed up at Mose's door, there were no good options left.

I imagine immediate retaliation if Mose fought back and somehow gained the upper hand. Maybe a mob comes back and burns down his house, kills Mose along with his family just to make an example out of them.

[CeeBeeGee]

19 hours ago, AntFTW said:

Right! You put it in the best way possible. By the time these men showed up at Mose's door, there were no good options left.

I imagine immediate retaliation if Mose fought back and somehow gained the upper hand. Maybe a mob comes back and burns down his house, kills Mose along with his family just to make an example out of them.

Exactly. Plenty of historical examples to cite, like the Tulsa massacre.

God, this whole story is just so devastating and sad. That poor child. He was a child. They tortured and murdered a child.

[A.Ham]

16 hours ago, CeeBeeGee said:

God, this whole story is just so devastating and sad. That poor child. He was a child. They tortured and murdered a child.

Yes. Painful to watch, at every turn—all the small but consequential decisions that led to his tragic end, and then the galling lack of accountability; people twisting themselves into pretzels to try and justify the murder of a child in the face of overwhelming evidence. And the knowledge of how it all turned out. 

[secnarf]

6 hours ago, A.Ham said:

Yes. Painful to watch, at every turn—all the small but consequential decisions that led to his tragic end, and then the galling lack of accountability; people twisting themselves into pretzels to try and justify the murder of a child in the face of overwhelming evidence. And the knowledge of how it all turned out. 

I was thinking of that watching the trial too. If this were fiction, you know they would end up convincing whatever witness to testify and the jury would believe them and we would get a conviction. You can feel the characters' hope that things will turn out in their favour.

[kirkola]

On 1/14/2022 at 12:51 AM, Artsda said:

I don't feel much sympathy for Moses. I get the letting him be taken, I don't get the doing nothing until the next day. Just sitting there waiting for him to return or the men to bring him back. If he acted initially after they drove off maybe something could have been different. The he did what the Sherriff wanted and was going to bury Emmett, it was his sons that had more strength to stand up against that.

Watching the luxuries of the killers sitting there so carefree, then just so smugly walking past Mamie & Moses outside was infuriating. 

My understanding of that era is that Moses didn't have much of choice at any point.  Jim Crow didn't allow him any room to do anything, but what he did.  For that matter, even going to the Sheriff's office the next day was a huge risk.  And he grew up in this space/era, so whatever options we might think of, weren't things that were readily available to him.  My heart broke for poor Moses.  Trying to do right by his family, which included Emmett. 

[andromeda331]

Part of me wants to be annoyed with Mose for what happened. But he really didn't have any other choice. Maybe if he had known about it when the boys got back he could have gotten them all out of there before anything happened. But he didn't. When the men showed up he had no options. Men who kidnapped and brutally murder a 14 year old boy wouldn't have thought anything about killing the rest of the family. They did warn him if he recognized anyone he wouldn't make it to 65. 

Damn how much I hate everything that's going on. The sheriff and everyone acting like it's no big deal a kid was killed. I know its accurate but it's horrifying. The men bringing their kids to court. The horrible woman who started it all. 

[hula-la]

On 1/13/2022 at 7:02 PM, Spartan Girl said:

Poor Uncle Moses. Some people on social media were pretty harsh on how he let Emmett get taken, but they neglect to realize that this was the Jim Crow South. They were armed. What could he have done? He was completely powerless; if he tried to stop them, they would have killed him and the rest of the family too. And it’s obvious that he never forgave himself for any of it. That’s probably why he took such a risk to testify in court.

People are viewing 1955 events with a 2022 lens. It's like those people who wonder why enslaved people didn't "fight back", because they haven't really understood slavery. If you have no rights, how can one fight back? The same happened in the Jim Crow south. If you're living in a place where you have separate schools, water fountains, entrances, and places where you are "allowed" to sit and to live, there is no way that one can fight back against men with guns who have come to your house to get your child who allegedly mistreated a White Woman. Plus, the number of lynchings, race riots, and massacres that happened because a White woman was "mistreated".

[CeeBeeGee]

On 1/19/2022 at 3:33 PM, kirkola said:

My understanding of that era is that Moses didn't have much of choice at any point.  Jim Crow didn't allow him any room to do anything, but what he did.  For that matter, even going to the Sheriff's office the next day was a huge risk.  And he grew up in this space/era, so whatever options we might think of, weren't things that were readily available to him. 

 

On 1/24/2022 at 5:59 PM, andromeda331 said:

Part of me wants to be annoyed with Mose for what happened. But he really didn't have any other choice. Maybe if he had known about it when the boys got back he could have gotten them all out of there before anything happened. But he didn't. When the men showed up he had no options. Men who kidnapped and brutally murder a 14 year old boy wouldn't have thought anything about killing the rest of the family. They did warn him if he recognized anyone he wouldn't make it to 65. 

 

On 1/25/2022 at 11:34 AM, hula-la said:

People are viewing 1955 events with a 2022 lens. It's like those people who wonder why enslaved people didn't "fight back", because they haven't really understood slavery. If you have no rights, how can one fight back? The same happened in the Jim Crow south. If you're living in a place where you have separate schools, water fountains, entrances, and places where you are "allowed" to sit and to live, there is no way that one can fight back against men with guns who have come to your house to get your child who allegedly mistreated a White Woman. Plus, the number of lynchings, race riots, and massacres that happened because a White woman was "mistreated".

From the book on which was based, The Blood of Emmett Till:

Quote

The four white men rode in the large cab. One or more of the black men stayed in the bed of the truck to keep Emmett from fleeing...At this distance in time the role of the black men is a little hard to fathom. They could have had few illusions about the fate of the boy they were restraining. Their behavior may reflect their terror of and utter subservience to J.W.; they would have known that their objections to the boy's fate would carry no weight and that the white men could kill them with impunity at any point. There was room in the Mississippi or the Tallahatchie for their bodies, too. An African American's testimony in a court of law was all but useless in 1950s Mississippi, and they were unlikely to report the crime to Sheriff Strider. It is also possible that these black men suffered from an internalized white supremacy so deep that they virtually never questioned the prerogatives of white men; their world was certainly constructed to make it so. Suffice it to say that at every juncture the white men were calling the shots.

Wright absolutely did not have a choice. The system was that water tight. (In fact I have another book about white supremacy in Mississippi written in the early '60s in the immediate aftermath of the integration of Ole Miss and the riots that accompanied that. The title is Mississippi: The Closed Society.)

When Wright realized who was at the door his wife tried to wake up Emmett to let him out the back door--they were going to tell Bryant and Milam that Emmett had already gotten on the train for Chicago. But they couldn't wake him up in time. I'm crying right now, typing this. Those goddamn murderers. If only Emmett been able to wake up quicker. It's just so damn sad.

[A.Ham]

On 1/26/2022 at 6:26 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

When Wright realized who was at the door his wife tried to wake up Emmett to let him out the back door--they were going to tell Bryant and Milam that Emmett had already gotten on the train for Chicago. But they couldn't wake him up in time. I'm crying right now, typing this. Those goddamn murderers. If only Emmett been able to wake up quicker. It's just so damn sad.

Damm. May those monsters still be burning in whichever circle of hell is considered the worst.

[kirkola]

On 1/26/2022 at 6:26 PM, CeeBeeGee said:

 

 

From the book on which was based, The Blood of Emmett Till:

Wright absolutely did not have a choice. The system was that water tight. (In fact I have another book about white supremacy in Mississippi written in the early '60s in the immediate aftermath of the integration of Ole Miss and the riots that accompanied that. The title is Mississippi: The Closed Society.)

When Wright realized who was at the door his wife tried to wake up Emmett to let him out the back door--they were going to tell Bryant and Milam that Emmett had already gotten on the train for Chicago. But they couldn't wake him up in time. I'm crying right now, typing this. Those goddamn murderers. If only Emmett been able to wake up quicker. It's just so damn sad.

I think Wright's action in the broadcast hinted at that, but it wasn't stated out right in the narrative here.  I mean, we see him wandering around the house looking for Emmett in various rooms for as long as he dared without alerting Bryant/Milam.  He was clearly stalling for time, but what that was meant to accomplish was implied.