Description

The last surviving witness to the lynching of Emmett Till tells his story with poignant recollections of Emmett as a boy critical insights into the recent investigation and powerful lessons for racial reckoning both then and now

New York Times Book Review Editors Choice In this moving and important book the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr and Christopher Benson give us a unique window onto the anguished search for justice in a case whose implications shape us stillJon Meacham

In 1955 fourteenyearold Emmett Till was lynched That remains an undisputed fact of the case that ignited a flame within the Civil Rights Movement that has yet to be extinguished Yet the rest of the details surrounding the event remain distorted by time and too many tellings

What does justice mean in the resolution of a cold case spanning nearly seven decades In A Few Days Full of Trouble this question drives a new perspective on the story of Emmett Till relayed by his cousin and best friendthe Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr a survivor of the night of terror when young Emmett was taken from his familys rural Mississippi Delta home in the dead of night

Rev Parker offers an emotional and suspenseful pageturner set against a backdrop of reporting errors and manipulations racial reckoning and political pushbackand he does so accompanied by neverbeforeseen findings in the investigation the soft resurrection of memory and the battletested courage of faith A Few Days Full of Trouble is a powerful work of truthtelling a gift to readers looking to reconcile the weight of the past with a hope for the future