缅怀埃米特·提尔（Emmitt Till）（美中報導）
“我们正在公开应对我们的斗争，这一点让我感到振奋。而且它让我们有别于许多其他国家。我们不会忽视我们的失败和缺点，也不会试图掩盖它们，假装它们并不存在。我们直面它们，让世界看到它们。这是痛苦的。有时也是丑陋的。但我们正是以这种方式取得进展。”布林肯国务卿2021年3月3日在美国国务院本·富兰克林厅如此表示。
即将到来的这个星期天（7月25日）是埃米特·提尔（Emmitt Till）诞辰80周年。
广为人知的是，在这位少年1955年的葬礼上，他的母亲玛米·提尔(Mamie Till)选择了一个敞开的棺材——尽管埃米特是被人残忍杀害的。当被问及为何选择这样做时，她说出了这些掷地有声的话语：
我要让世界看看他们对我的孩子做了些什么。
埃米特·提尔是谁？
埃米特·提尔出生于芝加哥，在黑人中产阶级社区长大。
他于1955年14岁时被谋杀，这一事件令全美关注密西西比州普遍存在的种族暴力和不公正现象。提尔在密西西比州探望亲戚时和表亲去了一家名为布莱恩特商店的杂货店，可能还对卡罗琳·布莱恩特吹了口哨。卡罗琳·布莱恩特的丈夫罗伊·布莱恩特和姐夫J.W.米拉姆绑架并残忍地杀害了提尔，还将他的尸体扔到了塔拉哈奇河中。新闻报纸的报道和谋杀案的审判激励了一代年轻的非裔美国人加入民权运动，因为他们担心这样的事可能发生在朋友、家人甚至他们自己身上。
提尔是路易斯·提尔和玛米·提尔的独子。提尔的母亲是一位公认的非凡女性。作为一名成长于20世纪20年代和30年代的非裔美国女性，玛米不顾社会限制和歧视，在学业和专业领域都表现得极其出色。
Remembering Emmitt Till
“I take heart in the fact that we’re dealing with our struggles out in the open.And that sets us apart from many other countries.We don’t ignore our failures and shortcomings or try to sweep them under the rug and pretend they don’t exist.We confront them for the world to see.It’s painful.Sometimes it’s ugly.But it’s how we make progress.”Secretary Blinken,March3,2021,Ben Franklin Room at the Department of State
This coming Sunday,July25,would have been Emmett Till’s80th birthday.
At the teenager’s funeral in1955,his mother,Mamie Till,famously opted for an open casket,though Emmett had been brutally murdered.These are her powerful words when asked why she chose to do that:
Who was Emmitt Till?
Emmett Till was born in Chicago and grew up in a middle-class Black neighborhood.
The murder of14-year-old Emmett Till in1955brought U.S.nationwide attention to the racial violence and injustice prevalent in Mississippi.While visiting his relatives in Mississippi,Till went to a grocery store called the Bryant Store with his cousins,and may have whistled at Carolyn Bryant.Her husband,Roy Bryant,and brother-in-law,J.W.Milam,kidnapped and brutally murdered Till,dumping his body in the Tallahatchie River.The newspaper coverage and murder trial galvanized a generation of young African Americans to join the Civil Rights Movement out of fear that such an incident could happen to friends,family,or even themselves.
Till was the only child of Louis and Mamie Till.Till's mother was,by all accounts,an extraordinary woman.Defying the social constraints and discrimination she faced as an African American woman growing up in the1920s and'30s,Mamie excelled both academically and professionally.
