The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of child death and racism.

Born in the Mississippi Delta in September 1976, Wright Thompson, who is white, grew up on a family farm approximately 23 miles from the scene of Emmett Till’s murder. However, he did not learn of the infamous murder until he left the state to go to college. Indeed, he was ignorant of the legacy of racial violence in the Mississippi Delta. At college, he displayed some of the hateful symbols of the Confederacy, including a noose, and was chastised by a teacher. Once he understood the meaning of those symbols, he was horrified that he had displayed them. He then began to study the history of his state.

Thompson is focused on the many connections among the people of the Delta. Explaining the family trees of those who were present on the night of Till’s abduction and murder, Thompson emphasizes their “tribal” connections. He depicts the murder of Till as a “tribal” one in which the people of one supposed “tribe” murdered the child of another. It was not a random killing. The jurors and defense attorneys belonged to the same “tribe” as the perpetrators and thus sided with them, leaving the brutal murder of a child unpunished.