Story Behind Rosa Parks Often Forgotten, Says Author of New Book on Emmett Till

April 29, 2010 - PRLog -- "Who Killed Emmett Till" is now available as a print book at Amazon and Barnes and Noble online bookstores. Written by Susan Klopfer, the true story of Emmett Till, a young man murdered in the Mississippi Delta, focuses on early years of the modern civil rights movement taking place in Mississippi and then moves into modern times.

"People often think of Rosa Parks as the beginning of this important social movement, but in fact enslaved Africans were fighting for their freedom as soon as they were captured and brought to the United States. The civil rights movement had its beginnings on plantations, first on the eastern seaboard, and then later in the interior of this country including Mississippi.

"When I was an elementary student, I was taught so many things that were wrong about the civil rights movement, including the popular notion that those enslaved simply accepted their plight and did little or nothing about it."

But Klopfer found records, while doing research, that showed that many enslaved fought back vigorously. "Some tied up animals and hung them upside down on the owners's fences. Some broke levies, allowing the plantations to be flooded. Some poisoned the plantations owners and even the entire families. Others set plantations on fire, and many others simply ran away -- to become known as maroons."

"Who Killed Emmett Till" takes the reader into the deep South and focuses on the civil rights movement that began soon after the Civil War ended, as people worked to vote and enjoy the few freedoms that were quickly taken away, Klopfer said.

In the period following World War I, there was an active movement of African Americans who tried to start and join labor unions. "They were still horribly mistreated as workers for the plantation owners -- there were still beatings and murders that took place, and even massacres of hundreds of families, including their children." In her book, Klopfer writes of two such massacres, one across the Mississippi River in Arkansas and another in the heart of the Delta, in the small town of Minter City.

"As I learned more of these incidents, I drove to the actual place where they occurred and often found people still living there who shared their stories, passed down by relatives and friends.

Klopfer writes about Joe Pullen, a plantation worker who came back to the small town of Drew, Miss. after WWI. "He got into a fight over wages he believed he was denied. A fight ensued and Pullen, after killing the planter ("most likely in self defense"), was chased and killed himself. "For the first time, the national press reported this story -- about a Mississippi black sharecropper being tracked down and lynched by a mob."

It was this same town in Drew, where thirty-eight years later, that young Till was lynched. "Emmett, 14, had been visiting his relatives in the nearby cotton town of Money. After an encounter at a small grocery store, where he was accused of whistling at the white store-owner's wife, he was tracked down and taken to a shed in Drew. Till was tortured and murdered there, and then taken to the Tallahatchie River, outside of Glendora, where his body was tied to a large, metal gin fan and dumped into the river."

Once Till's body surfaced, three days later, it was taken to Chicago and put on display at the insistence of his mother, "so the world could see how a child was treated in Mississippi due to racism."

"Over in Montgomery, Al., Rosa Parks had been planning her protest to sit at the front of the city bus. And because of Till's death and the news from Chicago, she decided it was the appropriate time to act. Hence, Till's death is seen as the spark that ignited the modern civil rights movement."

Klopfer said she was not taught the story of Emmett Till when she was in school. "This story is so important, as well as other stories coming from the earlier civil rights activities. And yet, so few know this history."

Klopfer said she is preparing to speak about her book before organizations and at colleges. "I am excited to announce that I will be speaking on diversity and multicultural issues, as well."

The white woman who lives in Iowa is often asked why, as a white person, she has chosen this topic.

"I lived in the Mississippi Delta for several years, on the grounds of Parchman Penitentiary, where my husband was the chief psychologist for Mississippi prisons. While he worked, I watched the inmates ride their horses out to the cottonfields. I became curious about the entire region and started traveling throughout the Delta, talking to people and hearing their stories.

"I actually became very angry where I realized how little of this history I'd been taught -- stories of people like Fannie Lou Hamer, Aaron Henry and, of course, Emmett Till. And I knew that I wanted to learn as much as I could and then share this with others."

Klopfer first wrote a large book covering civil rights history in the Delta, spanning from pre Civil War times to modern days. "I saw that much information had been collected but it was not contained in one book. I wanted to write something that would help me -- and others -- put these stories together in a cohesive way."

From her firsgt book, "Where Rebels Roost; Mississippi Civil Rights Revisited," she wrote a smaller version, "The Emmett Till Book."

Last summer, Klopfer began a blog, piecing together the most critical stories contained in her first two books. From the blog, she wrote her newest book on Till, publishing it in various formats including and e-book, and i-book for the iPad, a downloadable version for the iPod or mp3 player, an audible book on CD, and a downloadable pdf version. "Now it is available in print format," she said.

Klopfer admits it has been a long journey, pulling together these Mississippi stories and publishing them in multiple versions.

"Many of these stories have never been told. By living in the Delta, I had the opportunity of speaking to people who had kept their family account through tales passed down over orally over generations. I also met people who lived in the Delta and who had actual experiences regarding the Till case. For instance, I spoke to the funeral home assistant who prepared Till's body for the trip back to Chicago.

"It seemed as though they were waiting to tell their stories and thankfully, I found them at the right time; now it is time for others to learn this history, too."

The 55th anniversary of Till's death takes place August 28, Klopfer said. "Will all of the fighting taking place regarding illegal immigration, this is a good time to stop and reflect about diversity and why we must do to learn to live together."

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Susan Klopfer is an author and speaker in the fields of civil rights, diversity and multicultural issues.