The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

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

In 1955, Rosa Parks read about the death of Till. When she later refused to surrender her seat for a white person, as required by law, Till was on her mind. In need of money, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant made their infamous confession to a reporter for Look magazine. In giving this confession, the two half-brothers protected Leslie Milam and the barn. This account of the murder, written by Bill Huie, became the “official record” and erased the barn from history (314). Years later, a student at Rhodes College in Memphis demonstrated the impossibility of the timeline provided in the confession. For a time, the barn returned to normality. The Shurdens sold the property to the Buchanans in 1961. The murder was never discussed, and the Buchanans did not learn about the murder until well after they purchased the barn.

In December 1955, Elmer Kimbell, who at a minimum helped to clean up the Till murder, shot and killed a gas station attendant, a Black man. Again, Kimbell was acquitted, prompting a white citizen to comment, “There’s open season on the Negroes now.