Mississippi Trial, 1955

Rating:
Summary: Great social commentary
Review: Chris Crowe writes convincingly about the social climate of the Mississippi Delta area in 1955 through the eyes of Hiram Hillburn, a sixteen-year-old boy who comes back to the South to visit his ailing grandpa. Hiram befriends Emmett Till, a black teenager down from Chicago. After Emmett is kidnapped and found dead, Hiram believes he has information about one of the killers.

Although I enjoyed Crowe's character development of Hiram and his Grandpa, the other characters in the book were relatively one-dimensional. All the town's characters are almost caricatures of something seen in an old film. However, except for the inherent racism, nothing is as it seems. All the simplistic town characters are there for a reason: to flesh out the South's problematic prejudicial system. Hiram yearns for the Greenwood, Mississippi, of his young childhood and for the Grandpa that he thought he knew. Although Hiram's father is a peripheral character, his attitude is seen through Hiram's eventual awakening to the social situation in the Delta.

All in all, I would recommend this book to any student interested in getting a more personal sense of the 1950s South through historical fiction.

Rating:
Summary: Mississippi Trial, 1955
Review: Crowe, Chris. Mississippi Trial, 1955. 2002. Phyllis Fogelman/Penguin Inc. 9-12.
This book is based on the true story of Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy from Chicago who came south to visit relatives in Mississippi in the fall of 1955. A fish out of water in Mississippi, his behavior did not fit the accepted norm for behavior for a black person in the south at that time. Talking familiarly to a married white woman and being bold enough to whistle at her condemned him, in spite of his youth, to torture and death.

This extraordinary book will haunt you long after you finish reading it. It is a well-written tale with a constantly increasing tension and fully rounded and developed characters. This book is a terrible indictment of those good and loving citizens who had the secret dark side of the Clan hidden under their smiling faces. This is the coming of age story of a young white boy who goes back to visit his beloved grandfather and finds a world he was too young and innocent to see when he visited as a child. Hiram finds the difficulty in facing darkness is not the darkness that lies hidden in strangers, but the darkness hidden in ourselves and those we love. This book will win awards.

Rating:
Summary: Racism...
Review: I just finished this book tonight and I will say it is one of the best books I've read in a long time. The protagonist, Hiram, doesn't exactly get along with his father, especially where his grandfather is concerned. So when his father finally permits him to go to Greenwood, he is thrilled. But the town isn't how he remembers it to be. It is all perfectly clear when his 'friend' R.C. forces Emmett Till, a black youth from Chicago visiting his uncle, to eat fish guts. When Emmett whistles at a white woman, things go sour, and R.C. talks about wanting to go with a few men who invited him to teach Emmett a lesson. But then Emmett goes missing and when his body is found, Hiram has a feeling R.C. might be one of the men involved with the boy's brutal murder. Though two of the men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, involved are on trial, it isn't known who the other two (a man and a woman) are. Will justice come to the Till family? And who else was involved in the murder of Emmett Till?

This book was excellent - the characterization, the setting, description, plot...it was a well-written, well-thought-out book. I recommend it to anybody who is looking for a good book on prejudice and the Civil Rights movement. It will really get you thinking.

Rating:
Summary: Adults and Teens should read this one
Review: Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Rides, and the March on Washington. But one name and event is often missing: Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black boy from Chicago who was brutally murdered, his body dumped in the Tallahatchie River, for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
Told though the eyes of Hiram Hillburn, a white teenager who has come to spend the summer with his grandfather, the reader is taken into the heart of racism at a time when the passions of the south were volatile and violent. Hiram sees changes in his beloved south, his friends, and even his grandfather; changes which make him doubt his own safety. Hiram witnesses R.C. Rydell force Emmett to eat a raw fish at knife-point. Hiram's grandfather offers no sympathy, warning that "colored boys should know better than to push themselves on white folks." After Emmett is murdered, Hiram doesn't want to stay silent, he wants the truth to be told, even if it uncovers secrets about his own family.
Discuss of racism as it stands in our country today, and what can be done to prevent it.

Rating:
Summary: The Raving Review
Review: The Raving Review

Hiram Hillburn loves spending time with his Grandma and Grandpa down in Greenwood, Mississippi. But then his Grandma dies and Hiram's parents decide to move to Tempe, Arizona. Then in the summer of 1955 when Hiram is 16, his parents decide to let him go back to Greenwood. But Hiram feels it is not the same Greenwood that he remembered as a young boy. Then a young African-American boy is murdered because of an ugly racial incident. Hiram is starting to learn why his father was trying to not let him go.
I liked the book for the most part, though there were a few parts I didn't care for, like when Hiram witnessed the ugly racial incidents. This book is based on real events. So, if you like true stories that are part of our country's history like this, then I would recommend this book to you. The author did a good job of making this book very descriptive. I give it 3½ out of 4 stars.

By: Adam ...

Rating:
Summary: A provacative look at a turning point in history
Review: The trial of Emmett Till's murderers is a story everyone needs to hear about and this story is told in such a clear and enjoyable way, that all who read it will want to delve deeper into the history. I read it clean through in one sitting, never getting bored or tired. It is a clever blend of fact and fiction, the language captivates without distracting, and the events are so compelling the book leaves the reader rethinking life choices. Great for children and adults alike. In fact, I think this book can catch even the reluctant readers.