Will give both our authors 20 minutes to speak and we allocate 10 minutes for questionandanswer. Im also admonished to remind you if youre really enjoying yourself, that the southern festival of books depends upon individual donations. If you really enjoy what youve seen over the past couple of days, id encourage you to donate as much as you can. We are in for a treat today. I asked these two jennifer bio gentleman for bios a couple of visio. They are esteemed scholars but also some of the most modest men that ive met. I will give you a brief and iuction to them encourage you to speak with them after the session ends. Our first presenter this morning gorn. Liott born chair and american urban history at Loyola University in chicago. Books author of five including a brief history of american sports, mother jones the most dangerous woman in ride thend wild year that made americas public enemy number one. And the work he will be talking about today is let the people see. To his right is christopher schmitt, the associate dean for Faculty Development and the codirector of the institute of the Supreme Court of the United States at Chicago College of law. Is also a faculty fellow at the American Bar Foundation and the editor of law and social inquiry. Professor schmidt teaches and writes for the areas of constitutional law and history. Youes and gentlemen, i ask to join me in welcoming both our esteemed scholars. Thank you. [applause] can you hear me . Firstly, thank you very much for the introduction. Thanks for the organizers of this festival. Ive never been here before, and im not sure why. It has really been wonderful. Murder about the till just a little, its hard to know exactly how much people know about it, so ill start by. ,lling the story book helpedhis alert me and make me more aware. It takes a long time to make a think this ones is going to be easier. And then it just kills you. If you know the story at all, forgive me, but im going to try to encapsulate it. Emmett till was a 14yearold chicago kid who, one summer in august of 1955, went down to mississippi to visit his uncle and cousins. He had been there before a couple times. Now these 14 and hes going with his uncle who had been up in , and he goes down to mississippi and spends time with his cousins, works a little bit at the harvest of cotton. And then after is there about a week, he goes to a local Crossroads Store with his cousins, they drive over. And this story is told many ways, but the story is yes, there are facts that we know and can know, important facts, but there are also things we dont know, and people filling in gaps and sometimes those gaps, its not so much that they are wrong, its the way they tell the story. People tell the story for particular meetings. Im not a postmodernist, dont worry. I believe in real fax in real ways to tell it, but there are things we cant know. He goes to a Grocery Store in mississippi with his cousins. One, there in one by are kids playing checkers on the porch. Is in for about a minute or so to buy some know is hein what we comes out, lingers for a moment watching checkers, and the woman who was in the store, running the store, she comes out and starts going to her car to get something, a gun, she later says. And while shes going there, and it till, this is pretty clear, his cousins say this did happen, a wolf whistle. His cousins attest to this. And everyone who is not a chicagon understood what this meant. And it and his cousins and their friends run for their car and take off back home. At one point, they even think someone is trailing them and they dive into the fields. A few days passed by and this seems to have passed. Even though there is a foretelling that these folks are not going to let this pass. A few days passed, and he goes with his cousins to greenwood, mississippi for the annual shopping night, entertainment, as people do. They come back about midnight. About 2 00 in the morning, theres a knock on the door. Two men come and kidnap and the till. Later that they admit that they kidnapped him, said they let him go, and they are the husband of the woman who he whistle that, and the cousins halfbrother. Jail and end up in later,s a trial a month and they are both exonerated. In one hour, a jury finds the not guilty. As one of the leaders of the moment said, they kidnapped him, of course. They kidnapped him and his body turned up a few days later the, gin, and submerged with a mill fan around his neck. Thats when these two stand trial for murder. , black mennry said in black boys have been found killed for years and years and understoode never why this one became such a big event. Well, it was. It was Headline News. Place,n the trial took it was Headline News throughout the world. The Information Agency had its hands full trying to control this story and spin it. In oneal takes place hour, the jury of 12 white men find the two defendants not guilty, and this is just an enormous event. I told a very brief version of the story, so much that is not right. He did live with his mother in the south side of chicago, but he spent most of his life in a town called argo. It is not in chicago, which is a very western edge of chicago. He had come for mississippi as the school was integrated, she graduated very high in her class. Rts teams were in sigrid integrated. Block to block there were white and black families. Predominately black here, predominately white there. But if you think about it, why would he not be able to partake seriously in jim crow segregation, which did not take seriously the prerogatives that men like thought they had that he had insulted his wife. Trial, she dide not just say that he whistle that her, she says that he grabbed her. That he made threatening gestures and words, that this was an attempt, borderline easily interpreted as an attempt at rate, rape, so she claims. He comes from argo, not chicago. Every weekend he was back in argo. Thats an important detail. There were only two killers. Well, only two who stood trial. We dont know exactly what do know thatut we there were several other members especially of the family or friends of the family who were involved in the beating and thatng on the plantation was run by the sun. Several other members of the family involved, and also seen in the back of the truck as they were driving him to his death. Its unclear, two or three africanamericans men who, as it jw, veryt, worked for much under his sway. Moree story gets more and complicated. There is an article about this story that is published months afterward by a man named drilquip William Bradford, and he tells what he says is the truth about the killing. And the truth about the killing was that it was done by just the two men. He knew that there were other cameras. And that the reason they did it, the reason was that and it till was this, as he depicts in, this sexually rapacious black man who was in their faces about how he was just as good as they were, and thats when he insisted that he had had white girls and he would again, thats when jw shot him. As we can tell, that is completely made up. Exactly where he thinks he got that is hard to say, but hes one of these journalists who is held bash consulate telling how he is a true teller. He made it up. This is that about you always get the impression you read about this that this was a kangaroo court, a completely unfair trial. There are some interesting details about that which are very important. The judge was for mississippi. Journalists north and south talked about what a fair and dignified and proper trial he conducted. In terms of what evidence he allowed, how he treated the wouldses, for example, he not allow, in court, in front of the jury, carolyn begins to tell her story about what and its till did to her, and the jury is ordered out, and he insists that it not be admitted because if you think about it, what would that have to do with why they killed him . Thatwould have to argue someone was in danger of their life. Theres no place in a proper jury trial for an honor trial, which is what was he argued. He wouldnt allow that. Prosecutor, ahe man named Curtis Chatham also. Part,ay that at least in the character of Atticus Finch is encouraged by chatham. Chatham wanted a conviction. Black and white commented on how good a job he did, how clearly, especially when they described his closing arguments, how serious he was about this. None of that matters. It didnt matter a bit again, because the jury was 12 white men. Why were there only 12 white men on the jury in mississippi . Because tallahatchie county, which was to fifth black, had not a single africanamerican voter. Which does make you think about the importance of voting beyond just devoting itself. Story, things about the the very famous photo, im not going to show it to you, its you are to look at, but the photo op and its till of emmett till in his coffin, and the way that is often depicted, in the new yorker just a couple of years ago, something i said . [alarm cuts off] target . The editor of the new yorker writes, as many people have before him, the famous photo of init till of emmett till his coffin, people saw that and they were converted, that the Civil Rights Movement gives with that photo. Well, there is an assumption there, and is that people white and black saw that photo. That was never in the integrated press. That was never in the newspaper. It was in the chicago defendant. And if you other africanamerican newspapers. The tens oficans by thousands, hundreds of thousands saw that photo. And you know that from people who talked about it, representative john lewis. It,mmad ali talked about and he talked about it because of that photo. But white people didnt see that picture in any numbers at all until 1987. And then slowly, other documentaries, that photo begins to appear. Just a small piece that i think is interesting in another recent emmmettut the blood of till, Carolyn Bryant confesses that she lied. Shes not very specific. He didnt deserve what happened to him, shes not very specific. What is not as widely reported jerryut two months ago, mitchell, an outstanding carolyn reported that recanted her recantation. She says i never told you that. And actually, tyson does not have a recording of her saying that. He has notes. Its not recorded. All of the things that matter, that add up to how we about the trial, i want to give you one more and ill stop. One more. Case inreopened the 2004, investigated very thoroughly to 2006. They had avoided the case at all costs in 1955 in every way they could. But they were very thorough in 2004 and 2005. Bryant, nowarolyn Carolyn Dawson is still alive. Wife is still alive, they spent a couple hours interviewing each of them each. Brian said i dont remember, i dont really want to talk about it. Data juanita is pretty much the same. She said that night, she was there alone because her husband was out trucking shrimp at the and he had never left her alone in the store before. This is the first time she had been there. She had never been there before. And she is then talking about what happened and she says out of the blue, it never made sense to me this whole thing just about being a whistle or a week, and the fbi, you could almost hear the fbi agents inhale. What you mean . No, hesterinlaw said came and laid hands on her, he was going to come back for her. And she says no, i dont think so. She says i think it was just about a whistle or a week. The cousin was a letter. I think she was just afraid to be in the store. I think she told the story because she wanted him to stop leaving her alone at the store. Is that true . Is that what happened . Know, she was to there, she was in the store with her kids. But is it really that simple . We really dont know. She said funding to that effect that was very interesting. She started talking about how, in her life, she had been around africanamerican people and was not afraid of them. Neverr sisterinlaw had been around black folks and was really afraid of them. That so resonates with the last words of carolyn in the trial and then to the fbi, i was scared to death. It makes us think about race and racism as hatred, of course, but fear, also. We dont talk about fear enough. The ancestor of hatred. That is, i guess, enough. Thank you. [applause] hello. Today, im going to be talking about my recently published book protest foritizens civil rights change by relating begin the opening scene of the book. It began the conversation. Four young, africanamerican men in a dormitory room discussing their hopes and their frustrations. Early late 1959 and then 1960. Of the many topics they talked about, the one they kept returning to what the challenge of leading a dignified life in the jim crow south. They talk and they talked some more, and in the words of one student, we just got tired of talking about it and we decided to do something. 1960,n the afternoon of they entered a story downtown greensboro. They purchased a few small items and sat down to lunch. Im sorry, the waitress told them, we dont serve colored in here. Like most department stores, the store welcomed African American customers in all parts of the store including the eating area, but with one restriction. They were not allowed to sit. He pointed out they had just been served at the merchandise counter and ask why they have been confused at this one. This is a public place, isnt it . If it isnt, why dont you sell never should parts . If you do that, i will understand it is a private concern. But they would not serve us, so we just sat there and to lunch counter closed and went back to school. They returned the following morning reinforced with. 1 in total. They went to the same routine and were refused again. They sat. The next morning they were back again, sitting in shifts throughout the day, talking quietly among themselves. Some wrote schoolwork. Police officers took watch on the scene as the local reporters. By the end of the week, and estimated to hundred students have taken part in the citizens. The greensboro demonstrations were not the first time africanamericans protested discrimination at other eating facilities in this way. But what separated these from those that came before was the fallen. These protests inspired other decisions to march, to picket, to organize white hot and in some cases, to go to jail to be beaten. Events. F her markable the citizens have become a movement. By the end of february 1950, some 30 cities in seven different states and sit in protest including our very own nashville. A month later, after two months, 48 cities in 11 states had citizens take place. In all, 50,000 people eventually took part in the 1960. A number were arrested for their courageous actions. I set up at the beginning of the book. In the project of the book is to tell a story about why this happened and the significance of where it happened. I have two primary goals for this book. One is a quite simple one which is to fill in the gaps. There is no book before this one on the student sit in movement. This is really a striking fact to me. This project grew out of a Law School Seminar paper i was working on in which i came across some fascinating Court Cases Involving appeals of convictions for sit in protest and i wanted to write a paper about it, so i went looking for the books because i thought there would be books and i found, to my surprise, that there is single book on the sit in movement. Quite simply, this is a book that needed to be written. It is obviously such an important part of our history that we need to have an accessible book on this topic. I teach in a law school, im a legal historian and i do have an argument about the citizens, something that isnt quite appreciated in those accounts that discussed the citizens. Because we cant understand why the sit in happened and what they achieved without paying attention to the law and including some questions of constitutional doctrine. So my book tells the story of the citizens and focus on the legal issues from six different perspectives. It has six different chapters, each about the citizens from a different perspective, each centered on a Different Group and the role they played in this remarkable story. They start off with the students during the protests, then i turned to the lawyers, the civil rights lawyers who came to help them and some of the issues that they had trying to figure out what their role in the story was going to be. I have a chapter on the sympathizers, people not directly involved, but who support the general cause of the citizens and the role they citizens and the role they sit in and the role they played. And then i turned to the u. S. Supreme court for a chapter on the justices of the u. S. Supreme war and how they struggled with the issues that came out of the in my last chapter focuses on the lawmakers, the members of congress will eventually passed a federal law which largely dealt with the issue. What were going to do with my remaining time here, im going to go through those chapters at least briefly. I mostly going to focus on the first two chapters and their different views, different roles. The first chapter focuses on students themselves, obviously the start of the story. It centers on the challenge of racial practices in the south. I have three basic questions. One, why did they choose this particular tactic . Another, why did they choose this particular target . In the last one, what were the goals, what were they actually trying to achieve . Let me just take those in order. Why this form of direct action . Its really important to note that the critiques if students bash the students were expressing was not only against jim crow, but against people they consider their allies, meaning the civil rights establishment, civil rights lawyers. There is a critique at play here. A lot of motivation for these protests emerged from frustration for the establishment in the africanamerican community, with what the students saw as the easy acceptance of jim crow by their parents and grandparents. Many of our adult and become complacent and fearful and it is time for some to wake up and change the situation and. E decide to start here thats not a very Fair Assessment of the situation their parents weapon, when it was motivating for them to think that there was something that needs to be done and our friends out there, her parents are not doing it. Is also a tactical critique, and a lot of frustration among the students with the established modes original reform, with litigation and lobbying of many people i