The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi

The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi (2024) is a work of nonfiction by Wright Thompson. Thompson exposes the details of Emmett Till’s brutal murder in 1955. He traces the root causes of the murder to the Mississippi Delta’s history of racism, corruption, and economic exploitation. Arguing that this legacy must be confronted to bring about change, he explains how discussion of this crime has been suppressed in the region for decades. Having grown up in the Mississippi Delta, Thompson brings both his personal background and his historical expertise to detailing the crime and its legacy. The book has received very favorable reviews. 

This guide refers to the 2024 Penguin Press hardback edition. 

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of graphic violence, death, child death, and racism. In particular, they discuss enslavement, the Jim Crow era, and racist violence.

Summary

The book is named for the location of Emmett Till’s torture and murder in Drew, Mississippi. For decades, the barn was written out of the narrative. Those who grew up after the murder, especially white people, had no idea of the barn’s significance. In the 2010s, the barn’s owner, Jeff Andrews, was using it as a shed, with Christmas decorations stored there. In the early 2020s, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center—which is dedicated to keeping Till’s memory alive—raised the funds to purchase the barn. As of 2023, the barn is a place of reverence for Till.

Thompson traces the policy choices and socio-economic forces that set the stage for Till’s murder. He emphasizes the ancestral, geographic, and tribal connections among those involved in, and those victimized by, the murder. The history of the Mississippi Delta is marked by corruption. Outside investors have transformed the region into one that historically generated wealth for the few and exploited the many. In the 1790s, a corrupt Georgia state legislature sold much of this land to speculators, who in turn sold the land to third parties in large parcels. Those sales made yeomen farming impossible and instead created plantations. Soon thereafter, an economy based on enslaved labor was entrenched in the area. As the Industrial Revolution took place in the 19th century, cotton from the Delta was exported to England. There, it was used to make clothing in sweatshops. Outside investors thus benefitted from the Delta.

After the Civil War, there was a brief period in Mississippi when Black Americans held elected office and voted. However, the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) formed in response and used terrorist tactics to suppress Black Americans’ voting. In 1890, Mississippi re-wrote its constitution to establish the Jim Crow system of segregation. Not only were Black Americans confined to inferior locations, but they were also expected to conform to strict codes of behavior, most of which dealt with sex. Black men and white women were to be kept apart. Black Americans who violated these codes were subjected to physical punishment or death.

While there were highs and lows in the cotton market, it was sustainable through the early 20th century. Those working the land, however, did so as sharecroppers who eked out only a subsistence living. The working conditions were not all that different from enslavement. During World War I, there was a cotton boom because of the demand for military uniforms. Following that war, the cotton industry began a long-term decline. The effects of the economic decline set the stage for Till’s murder.

Racial violence and oppression against Black Americans increased in this period. The virulent racism, combined with poor economic prospects, would cause a mass exodus of Black families from the Delta. Among those exiting to Chicago was Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Till’s great-uncle Moses Wright, whom he would visit in 1955, was forced back into sharecropping because of the cotton bust. The economic prospects for Till’s killers, the Milams and Bryants, already minimal, were lessened. The cotton industry in the Delta would have been finished when the Great Depression hit if the United States government had not subsidized it. All these past decisions and events brought the relevant parties together in 1955.

In 1954, the Supreme Court decided the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. In a 9-0 decision, the Court ruled that segregation by law in public schools was unconstitutional. A direct threat to the Jim Crow system, this decision elicited a hysterical reaction in the South. Gubernatorial candidates in Mississippi called for violence to defend segregation. White people were horrified at the prospect of Black boys attending the same schools as white girls. In the summer of 1955, the South was awaiting another Supreme Court decision about the enforcement of Brown. It was this racially super-charged environment that Till entered in 1955.

Moses visited his daughter in Chicago that summer and planned to take his grandson and Till’s best friend, Wheeler Parker, Jr., back to Mississippi for the remainder of the summer vacation. Till begged to go with them. His mother was reluctant to allow him to go; she eventually relented but warned him about the racist norms in the South. 

Once there, Till, Parker, and others went to Bryant’s Grocery in Money. It was there that Till allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, the store clerk. According to Till’s cousin Simeon Wright, nothing inappropriate happened in the store. Upon exiting, Till did not address Carolyn with the deferential “ma’am,” and she proceeded to her car to get a pistol. At that point, Till whistled, and the group quickly left the scene. Fearing that he would be sent home, Till pleaded with his cousins not to tell Moses about the incident.

Three days later, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, half-brothers, invaded the Wright home and kidnapped Till at gunpoint. Moses heard a female voice identify Till when the men were outside. Carolyn denied that she was there, but her husband, Roy, later admitted that she was. Till was taken to the barn in Drew where he was tortured for two hours and brutally murdered. Willie Reed, an 18-year-old who worked on a plantation with his family, witnessed the pickup truck approach the barn with four white men in the cab and three Black men in the back holding Till. He heard Till’s screams and saw J.W. exit the barn to get water at a well. Reed saw the truck enter the barn and exit with Till’s body covered by a tarp. The killers dumped Till’s body in the Tallahatchie River with a cotton gin fan tied around his neck.

When the mutilated body was discovered by a fisherman, Moses had to identify Till. Only J.W. and Roy were arrested for the murder and kidnapping. Leslie Milam, who owned the barn property and was present during the murder, was not charged, nor was anyone else. Despite death threats, Moses and Reed testified at the trial. Both had to move from the area immediately afterward. The all-white jury had familial and friendly ties with the defendants. The defense attorneys cast the case as one in defense of segregation against outside influences. Accepting this illogical defense, the jury acquitted both men of murder. Soon thereafter, a grand jury failed to indict the pair for kidnapping even though they had confessed to doing so. The men were released on November 9, 1955.

Following that, there was a comprehensive cover-up of the crime. White people in the Delta did not speak of it. Later, it was cast as the work of a few “bad apples” as opposed to the result of systematic racial violence and oppression. Till’s family and friends were devastated by the impact. To the nation, Till was a symbol, but he was a precious human being to those who loved him. Those present on the night of the abduction lived with trauma. Determined to resist the cover-up, Till’s loved ones and allies not only sought justice at the time of his death but also fought for decades to keep his memory alive. In 2023, those efforts paid off, as a national park was created in the Delta. 

Three of the killers, Leslie, J.W., and Roy, were ostracized by the white community following the trial. They were very poor, and all died prematurely of cancer. Mamie, Emmett’s mother, considered their fates a form of justice.