“The tragedy of humankind isn’t that sometimes a few depraved individuals do what the rest of us could never do. It’s that the rest of us hide those hateful things from view, never learning the lesson that hate grows stronger and more resistant when it’s pushed underground.” May we never forget Emmett Louis Till, and the many others killed who were never rescued and remembered from the Tallahatchie river.

This is a sympathetic telling of such a tragic event but done with grace and literary overtones. Thompson has researched this intensively and provides the bare facts of the crime and the people involved. His writing does not relay bias or conjecture but lays everything out plainly for the reader to decide and find their own stance. I was gripped from the start and now want to read everything by Thompson. An excellent and important read.