She exposed white brutality and black faith to the world and, significantly, expressed a parallel meaning between her son’s lynching and the crucifixion of Jesus. “Lord you gave your son to remedy a condition,” she cried out, “but who knows, but what the death of my only son might bring an end to lynching.” It was as if she was pleading with God to let her son’s death count for something—to help save other black boys from Emmett’s fate. “Darling, you have not died in vain,” she said to Emmett, as she “looked at that horribly mangled monstrosity”; “your life has been sacrificed for something.”
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