《Death of Innocence》是2004年12月Random House US出版的圖書，作者是Christopher Benson等。
基本介紹
- 書名：Death of Innocence
- 作者：Christopher Benson
- 出版社：Random House US
- ISBN：9780812970470
內容簡介,作者簡介,
內容簡介
There are many heroes of the civil rights movement—men andwomen we can look to for inspiration. Each has a unique story, apath that led to a role as leader or activist. Death of Innocenceis the heartbreaking and ultimately inspiring story of one suchhero: Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till—an innocentfourteen-year-old African-American boy who was in the wrong placeat the wrong time, and who paid for it with his life. His outragedmother’s actions galvanized the civil rights movement, leaving anindelible mark on American racial consciousness.
Mamie Carthan was an ordinary African-American woman growing upin 1930s Chicago, living under the strong, steady influence of hermother’s care. She fell in love with and married Louis Till, andwhile the marriage didn’t last, they did have a beautiful baby boy,Emmett.
In August 1955, Emmett was visiting family in Mississippi when hewas kidnapped from his bed in the middle of the night by two whitemen and brutally murdered. His crime: allegedly whistling at awhite woman in a convenience store. His mother began her career ofactivism when she insisted on an open-casket viewing of her son’sgruesomely disfigured body. More than a hundred thousand peopleattended the service. The trial of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant,accused of kidnapping and murdering Emmett (the two were eventuallyacquitted of the crime), was considered the first full-scale mediaevent of the civil rights movement.
What followed altered the course of this country’s history, andit was all set in motion by the sheer will, determination, andcourage of Mamie Till-Mobley—a woman who would pull herself backfrom the brink of suicide to become a teacher and inspire hundredsof black children throughout the country.
Mamie Till-Mobley, who died in 2003 just as she completed thismemoir, has honored us with her full testimony: “I focused on myson while I considered this book. . . . The result is in yourhands. . . . I am experienced, but not cynical. . . . I am hopefulthat we all can be better than we are. I’ve been brokenhearted, butI still maintain an oversized capacity for love.” Death ofInnocence is an essential document in the annals of American civilrights history, and a painful yet beautiful account of a mother’sability to transform tragedy into boundless courage and hope.
From the Hardcover edition.
作者簡介
Mamie Till-Mobley died on January 6, 2003, at the age of eighty-one. Following the death of her only child, Emmett Till, she entered Chicago Teachers College in 1956, graduating cum laude and fifth in her class three and a half years later. In 1973, she earned a master’s degree in administration and supervision at Loyola University. Till-Mobley was a frequent lecturer throughout the country, recalling the struggle for civil rights and urging her listeners to be the best they could be.
A Chicago-based writer and lawyer, Christopher Benson is the features editor for Ebony, and a former Washington editor for Ebony and Jet. His articles have also appeared in Chicago and Reader’s Digest. Benson is the author of the novel Special Interest, which will be published by One World/Ballantine in December 2003.
From the Hardcover edition.
