The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

by Wright Thompson

She went into a defensive crouch, determined to offer her son a measure of protection in death that she’d been unable to provide in life. His last words, the witnesses reported, had been crying out for her. She sent a telegram to President Eisenhower and demanded he use the powerful tools of the federal government to bring justice to the men who had lynched her son. “Awaiting a direct reply from you,” her message ended. She got no response. Down in Mississippi, the bigoted Sheriff Strider wanted the body buried immediately. Two men even dug the hole in the little graveyard outside the East Money Church of God in Christ. I’ve walked that cemetery more than once trying to see if there’s a sunken rectangle where a grave was dug and not filled. A hearse brought Emmett and parked along the gravel road. It’s clear the Mississippi officials who’d seen the body understood what the torture represented.