American Experience; The Murder of Emmett Till; Interview with Leon Finney

it is why this well what color and my mom aunt left mississippi i'm not sure that they ever into the stage on one that was i think are concerned about the contagion work online grandfathers and my grandfather's business got to do something different and my grandfather mostly to host them and they are thomas jefferson course does not affect the overall our costs a mississippi man that opens cats that for the man his manufacturing operation for the caskets on foreign workers and i think my dad was less than them work with our business and so he decided to control and do something different and he tells a story that really thought that he had received notice that he was to be directed as well and i thought that the outcome in chicago and the

economy i have no shot at the one where sweet thought to ruin him at opposite turned out it would work for comic effect company here unfortunately they thought what happened was that the eu founders of working useful for my mama on our end in either state of mississippi and in i suspect that at some point such a quick to his arrival and finding his home state a lifetime i was two years old abercrombie up on end we live on the south side of the city of chicago and i think that we lived in really mina was no lawful partner fortunate in that in those days so because the racial racial situation huge cause of such that and this

was of course a lot of african americans leaving on the south come into cigar we're in the plants and factories in the textile industry in and the packing houses all kinds of jobs that will drive the wartime economy that was happening by nineteen forty four nineteen forty one so all this was sort of went on an absolutely nobody wears a well being or about the gas on occasion been on by i think nineteen forty one so we decided to build a business with me the reasons why somebody from the city my reasons why i think that could be one of many reasons but let me just focus on perhaps three one the thought that there were no opportunities

in this is that for us i asked the judge say as well why why so many people from this one i think that people my wage caught my mind great and my british accent was sent to chicago as a service that people migrate to chicago from mississippi racist as they are trying to find that opportunities for themselves and the things mississippi cotton cane billboard country for years years winter racists discrimination was rampant inequality in the state of mississippi for a new manager she's so you find families like mine which may not be quite typical but showing that the friends of my family i came from the south of the city to chicago really looking for better opportunities a

place that they could live in or where they could feel that you get people employment they can't find good schools for their children to be educated they could find peace and happened not have to worry about confrontations and they were there was a case in mississippi the families that came also innocents as may come because of the threat i know all of friends of mine who have been leaning on the state of mississippi the house brought your parish but i know that some fled the city because the situation so harsh that racism so rampant in the state of mississippi over the state of mississippi it was just awful in many instances and people were routinely violated

if not in the workplace in the business very hands on their farms on display for the traffic and go to and from all various places on the highways and so the ohio mississippi for african americans in poor was very hostile an inmate raises people fled mississippi contest to call to get away from the racism in the hostility that was so rampant in the state of mississippi and then of course our own people left the state of mississippi for oprah's the reasons sometimes a woman may move here because her husband or war join him so they have a variety of other personal reasons that families would be comfortable in the state of mississippi county from chicago well our job is to students who

don't get an idea of where the mississippi law as yogi in terms of the other states in the south and in mississippi you had the reputation as far as i understand it being about the hours so i wonder what was your mum black folks well his reputation well i think that for a long time are mississippi that this has a good reputation for a long time was that it was one of the more races of the several states of the old dixie allen and the old confederacy at will are you had alabama and georgia mississippi and and i suspect in instances they would tend to complete almost a single group treat the african american citizen worse and for those of us who came to mississippi they tended to think that mississippi in terms of the racism was the

harshest it validated with it in any kind of scholarly study but i think that it was going to be quite harsh in and quite frankly insane says oh african american life dreams and legal things most and what they some of the plaintiff showing that come from mississippi because it was so harsh and then so races later on obviously as we look at a more acceptable to the black arm and after the civil rights movement took place and so many so much traffic in going back and forth between the mississippi and other southern states there was this sense of being acceptable on having come from mississippi are going to be more prevalent than them perhaps overly accounts good morning fourteen dot so you

know we just wouldn't see that at times it's us they're just keep it for better vision of this in one widely within reason she has a job you said tuesday yes i think that some people and maybe they were at the end of my age group on haven't been brought to the cities chicago appearance and really not coming to a mall pollution i was brought to the city to buy my parents they made a decision but i do remember there was a certain

shameless about coming from the sort of backward state of mississippi and it would be in the conversation is not for my family and my house all but it would be in the conversations around the school's you're from mississippi you know so you have kids playing this sorrow it's not going to be for mississippi off of carl i'm not for mississippi it was actually in the situation because mississippi was not we got others were more for states in the whole you know the united states where so you have this sort of sense in britain that mississippi wasn't quite close to becoming from any given time out in jerusalem same time that that until the wall was was eleven was happening was that it was a fairly safe place and do you at the fear the things that intellect is a lot in chicago are indeed in the end i would

say in the forties and in the fifties i think that's less safe i'll wait in the carolla neighborhood everybody knew it one when the black belt and so that has also culture and outside of police and there isn't a times sign of trouble or make some trouble on and perhaps the merchants that are selling goods and services to us allow that was unknown trafficking with the white community for us to even worry about racism itself grownups were about racism curse at arlington after schools or even sometimes with the public schools attended a sense of sharp racism when i was coming up in the city called the island all that exist like ah i wasn't a royal opera

most of my night i wasn't old enough to have to go to work in the end he confronted with racism in the workplace thousand when schools close enough american and the community and our shop mealy in my shop my shop in africa but even if obama might embarrass a lot of me downtown and we'll bomb you get the money that to deal with was to buy them buy you could try on coals i remember distinctly when i went to mississippi to visit my grandfather the store i could try a happy to go to anyone thereby can be weakened by trying to have huge column like hear about that that somehow know that the hat would become permanent that was about to happen ah but i do remember that distinctly would be in mississippi piazza sitting with my grandfather are invited me and i went to trump's hackles of them get caught another difference that i thought if you bought at a cargo

aren't you put it on and he quickly came my grandfather's <unk> and meet the yearly mississippi pass sales were off for a paper on my head and made my to see that it was the right size and in particular what that same kind of phenomenon that would never have happened and didn't happen and called it one of the i have to try to hang on to win and to win the stores now was it so lessin says that while that i was as a kid confront with racism in so strong was a teenager i was our only later on that i've recognized are after our own after i graduated high school and then and again the way to college i began to hear about racism and then of course the marches in the south law even happened with the ceasefire was is up or when you read about on

these like what happened with a lot of visions and things like that that was like minutes for each car like a fork for a country that these elections were taking place and self for those of us in our early or grammar school aged months ago teenagers if we were pretty much raising to calling balls and the label that that someone couldn't find the latest in mississippi and we get the newspapers the chicago defender and the pittsburgh courier would carry these stories about you was going on in the magazines in jet magazine would report the negro digest report on what was happening all across the country in particular that would be a new report on what was happening in mississippi or alabama or georgia we are so low and when he was in chicago i'm pretty much lived a carefree life and so connecting staten island as a suspect my mom and my dad and then my mom thing about me growing up in mississippi and i thought maybe maybe better to raise a kid watch out in the city called in to raise one in

mississippi where there was even if you really become a middle class when matters where i suspect they rip off off it's a lot safer in chicago to raise a family or if you're after written by then it is instead in the city and i can see that clearly are might very well be and what other considerations are side of the opportunity that they don't want to take a chance that your kidney on a charming run afoul of some racism in mississippi even though the constitution took the class you said that you didn't feel connected and all this is something people didn't know was that for example one of the things that might change that for so many people were murdered and and that you were so close in so many ways to limit so you know in age eighteen inroads as being from mississippi do you do when you were in a

telescope it did that making reflected give away one for your i think that bomb in a tale for me helped make a connection on that the allies was made the whitey in chicago art into allegedly bought he was when he was a steel arm off for must be odd to use the incident i mean that's so you know that was quite radical in terms of salon didn't feel for it they're speaking more or say some smart or so what it happens all the time in the city co op and probably happened at a little boy schools with where the teachers white and we may say something snarky to a white teacher or white non itchy car loan or when he would get you over there are no one would find him and find new poll worker

somehow another new laden and then follow that would've happened in strauss oh yes i would say that i would say that in the end in mississippi and when emmett till dawn was murdered they oh it did brady not a little consciousness ought to me are as i've lived in the city called off when that was a reporter and i had to really deal with it now in a more common way that i had just another instance made national of course everyone wanted to an hour for member ike can't quite remember the exact amount with emmett till whistled thrillers money seemed to become eliminating like it was it was down and it was tragic and we were real bad about it and there was a lesser level so the suspect that have been had happened maybe five or six years before my visit to mississippi the scene

iran will not happen because my parent who had been fearful to let me go to mississippi miracle that something like that might happen that that is not my say something smart often chicago are not are quite to the all blacks as opposed to behave in mississippi is they later white ah that their white counterparts and so my behavior may have been quite normal protocol no but my behavior would mean it had been adjusted to the devil in mississippi and not run the chances of getting leed stores sell one of the things that i think that that detention about don't serve us on the clinton machine is that is that that the fact that so many of us where we're from the north and relatives in the south

and so that was another real connection to mature i wrote this was still down and yet is unsafe to some people about that yes along the runway not designed the relatives of my family a very large family and many of them were still living in the season because they were then there was still consume a lot of music in the beginning that they were entrepreneurs and business people and people best there is land so i don't look as they are and we didn't ever since i retired the concern about their safety in mississippi but bought it i suspect our are a certain kind of life i love money for instance bought the trafficking with whites in mississippi was different that they didn't lead in it the bombing but that trafficking was a little bit different to the negotiating with it and he

is audience so all my family that means but they did not have the sufficient means were i suspect that to the notoriously all the time because you're never know when all white decide to shoot and kill my they get away with if all week and that would be anyone who decided to draw on a saturday night and the place and all of a sudden an innocent black stand by this deal with no apparent reason i suspect that happen quite often so the whole idea of the cover say are in the end the state of mississippi and in the dr barry when the people came from akron always was there is always an undercurrent of a lack of safety because of the legacy of the oven so the result of a mistake for me one of the things is that they're seeing a newly divided said no one thinks that things have to

change and then to the court decision not to convict these guys said they favored in chains and we have to change the way they did after song people one thing they were trying to do with this set you know tomatoes place in the whole civil rights movement affected song was to talk about yourself of well what is the effect was a trap honestly i think the effect in the till murder and the weight and then honestly the subsequent don't waive the judiciary and the state of the savage additionally the court an arm and one more insult to africa back america and that is that is if you want you can be killed if you like any killed by a white man in white man you could be killed they could be charged with a crime

and that they will they could be free palm that kind of fed the civil rights movement those offsets or remembering their number of mentions i mean it hasn't been going on in mississippi alone but this one can a brawny to focus shopper and i think that part of the firm that we would've we saw an experience all in the civil rights movement so that pardon came from the north and to a great degree that came from this officer partners was driven by how to overcome the fear of ian black in the south land of the united states of america and the civil rights movement on in the civil rights worker's i know for a fact are so my friends were the civil rights workers on as i mean later on work hard to help the blacks in

mississippi the full come to fear of even going into town and arrested about the fear was that oppresses that the white man would see it you went to even register to vote and if you vote so there was a sense that we have to get past the spirit this terror this terrorism if you will that was so manifest in mississippi and alabama doing all the southern states all because our it was made life not tolerable and so part of the work of the civil rights ordinance is off in the end fifties and sixties was hoping to overcome that fear that african americans of life pet that lived in those states and so on are the work of organizing marches are the work of organizing boycotts that were organizing civilians was all i think ought to assert and we retarded by virtue of that

fear resident in the indigenous peoples people of mississippi and the other southern states but also it was given a certain candidates that went down because we're not because it be possible for right people can live free of fear where they were paid taxes excel and so i think of that evidence suddenly another dimension to the civil rights movement