The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi
4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars | 501 ratings
Price: 19.69
Last update: 12-23-2024
About this item
An instant New York Times bestseller!
“It literally changed my outlook on the world…incredible.”—Shonda Rhimes
"The Barn is serious history and skillful journalism, but with the nuance and wallop of a finely wrought novel… The Barn describes not just the poison of silence and lies, but also the dignity of courage and truth.”—The Washington Post
“The most brutal, layered, and absolutely beautiful book about Mississippi, and really how the world conspired with the best and worst parts of Mississippi, I will ever read…Reporting and reckoning can get no better, or more important, than this.”—Kiese Laymon
“An incredible history of a crime that changed America.”—John Grisham
"With integrity, and soul, Thompson unearths the terrible how and why, carrying us back and forth through time, deep in Mississippi—baring, sweat, soil, and heart all the way through.”—Imani Perry
A shocking and revelatory account of the murder of Emmett Till that lays bare how forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta in the long lead-up to the crime, and how the truth was erased for so long
Wright Thompson’s family farm in Mississippi is 23 miles from the site of one of the most notorious and consequential killings in American history, yet he had to leave the state for college before he learned the first thing about it. To this day, fundamental truths about the crime are widely unknown, including where it took place and how many people were involved. This is no accident: the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.
In August 1955, two men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were charged with the torture and murder of the 14-year-old Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. After their inevitable acquittal in a mockery of justice, they gave a false confession to a journalist, which was misleading about where the long night of hell took place and who was involved. In fact, Wright Thompson reveals, at least eight people can be placed at the scene, which was inside the barn of one of the killers, on a plot of land within the six-square-mile grid whose official name is Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, fabled in the Delta of myth as the birthplace of the blues on nearby Dockery Plantation.
Even in the context of the racist caste regime of the time, the four-hour torture and murder of a Black boy barely in his teens for whistling at a young white woman was acutely depraved; Till’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley’s decision to keep the casket open seared the crime indelibly into American consciousness. Wright Thompson has a deep understanding of this story—the world of the families of both Emmett Till and his killers, and all the forces that aligned to place them together on that spot on the map. As he shows, the full horror of the crime was its inevitability, and how much about it we still need to understand. Ultimately this is a story about property, and money, and power, and white supremacy. It implicates all of us. In The Barn, Thompson brings to life the small group of dedicated people who have been engaged in the hard, fearful business of bringing the truth to light. Putting the killing floor of the barn on the map of Township 22 North, Range 4 West, Section 2, West Half, and the Delta, and America, is a way of mapping the road this country must travel if we are to heal our oldest, deepest wound.
Top reviews from the United States
The Barn not only dissects the murder and the people who committed it, but it celebrates the courage of the witnesses who testified at the sham trial and whose lives were forever altered by the trauma of their proximity to such a horror. Wright Thompson's insights about how elision of The Barn from the story as it has traditionally been told was a legal convenience suggested by one of the defendant's lawyers that had momentous consequences for how the murder came to be understood, and why certain lies were told at the time about the circumstances of those horrific four hours.
There is also a great deal about the antecedents to the crime, the history of the Mississippi Delta region, Jim Crow laws, race relations, and the white crisis of identity and depletion of wealth and self-respect that coincided with the collapse of the cotton industry. (There is a lot here--the author seems to transform the murder of Emmett Till into a metaphor that can be decoded sociologically, economically and politically).
The author's attention to the economic as well as the socio-political factors that shook these counties in the decades leading up to the crime I personally found fascinating. Another thing he does so well is express his obsession in such a way that it becomes the reader's obsession. (After I finished The Barn I looked at the F.B.I. files on the case. )
Overall, the book is just so artfully done. There is moral outrage, there is attention to small details that seem enormous in their implications, there is empathy and, by the book's conclusion, I believe there is, at least for some, the beginning of reconciliation and healing.
I love books that are the product of a personal obsession, and this one is tremendously powerful.
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The story is largely narrated through the life and times of the barn. It includes the history of the place and times before and after the murder of Emmitt Till. It is not told in any particular order per say. As different aspects of the life of the barn and surrounding farms and towns are discussed, the author author goes back to what is happening with the people. This includes both the black and white people.
It is a very sad and painful read. You hear of a number of times some very brave black men and women try to set examples of leadership fighting bigotry and hatred. Most of them die from their efforts. I specifically remember the stories the author tells of the white authorities do whatever it can to keep black people from voting. Things were never going to change if the white authorities had anything to do with it.
The authors words and narration kind of takes some of the sting out of the impact of the story. His voice is authentic sounding and has the skill of a born story teller.
While listening to the author tell us about this time that happened at least fifty years ago. There is a slight sense of relief that this was a long time ago. Then you remember the death of George Floyd. The intimidation of election workers in the South for the 2020 Presidential election and elsewhere. The conspiracy theories about the NAACP trying to steal the "Southerner way of life" or Emmitt Till's mother lying about her son's death to get a life insurance payout sounds like the conspiracy theories about the 2024 election or vaccinations. This story could easily have happened yesterday.