The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

by Wright Thompson

The Emmett Till Interpretive Center needed money to save the barn. The National Park Service took over only fully restored sites and that meant the River Site and the courthouse were the only serious candidates. That left the preservation of the barn to private donors and activists. The issue all along with acquiring and preserving the sites was finding the money to buy them. Jeff Andrews had been as warm and gracious as the Tribbles had been rude and evasive but the issue still came down to money. It’s hard to find money in the Delta. Then Patrick Weems got a call from a number he didn’t recognize. A Beverly Hills number. The woman on the other end ran the philanthropic efforts of the star Hollywood producer Shonda Rhimes, the Black creative force behind shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Bridgerton. She swore Patrick to secrecy. In all her years working for Rhimes, the woman said, this was the first project her boss had ever called her about supporting. Usually it worked the other way around. But this time the producer said she wanted to donate the money to buy the barn. To save it.