Product Description

As the fiftieth anniversary approaches, there's a renewed interest in this infamous 1955 murder case, which made a lasting mark on American culture, as well as the future Civil Rights Movement. Chris Crowe's IRA Award-winning novel and his gripping, photo-illustrated nonfiction work are currently the only books on the teenager's murder written for young adults.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1252055 in Books
• Published on: 2002-05-27
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 231 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Basing his promising debut novel on historical events, Crowe adopts the point of view of a white teenager confronting racism in the 1950s South. Hiram Hillburn has resented his civil-rights-minded father ever since the age of nine, when his parents moved him from his adored grandfather's home in Greenwood, Miss., to the more liberal climate of an Arizona college town. Now that he is 16, Hiram has finally been permitted to visit Grampa Hillburn again. Crowe takes a bit too much time before arriving at the central action: the lynching of Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who reputedly made "ugly remarks" to a white woman, and the nationally publicized trial, in which the murderers were acquitted. However, the author takes a nuanced approach to ethical dilemmas and his plotting seems lifelike. Events force Hiram to question his willingness to stand up for his beliefs and to reevaluate his understanding of the animosity between his grandfather and father. The characterizations are sketched with care, from the white lawyers who mock the black witnesses they cross-examine, to R.C., the bully whom Hiram suspects of participating in the crime, to R.C.'s sister, whom Hiram likes. If the conclusion feels a little hasty, Crowe's otherwise measured treatment will get readers thinking. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From School Library Journal
Grade 6-8-While visiting relatives in Mississippi, Emmett Till, 14, spoke "ugly" to a white woman and was subsequently tortured and murdered. Two men were arrested and tried for this heinous crime, but in spite of substantial evidence, were found not guilty. Crowe has woven the plot of his novel around these historical events. Hiram, the fictional main character, had lived with his grandparents in Mississippi as a child. Now 16, he returns to visit his aging grandfather, where he meets Emmett Till. He also renews a childhood acquaintance with R.C. Rydell, a redneck bully. When Emmett's mutilated body is found, Hiram immediately suspects that R.C. was involved. In a predictable twist at the end, he learns that it was his grandfather, not R.C., who helped the murderers. The Deep South setting is well realized. Descriptions of the climate, food, and landscape are vivid and on target. Likewise, Southern racial attitudes from the period are accurately portrayed. Grampa is a racist but Hiram enables readers to see his good qualities as well. Hiram himself seems rather naive. He is unable to fathom the racial prejudice at the root of his father's alienation from his grandfather. Nor does he feel the aura of racial fear and hatred that hangs over the entire region. The novel succeeds in telling Emmett Till's story, but there is an emotional distance that keeps readers from caring as deeply as they should about this crime. Still, it is a story that needs to be told. This book belongs in all collections to show young readers the full range of American history.
Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
Gr. 7-12. The 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi and the trial of his racist killers are at the center of this strong first novel. Crowe tells the story through the eyes of a white teenager, Hiram, 16, who is spending the summer with his beloved grandpa. The boy meets young Emmett, a lively African American visitor from Chicago, who refuses to go along with the submissive ways expected of a good black boy in the segregated community. When Emmett is tortured and killed, Hiram believes he knows one of the perpetrators, and he attends the trial. The facts are horrifying, and Crowe stays true to the newspaper accounts. What moves this beyond docudrama is Hiram's relationship with Grandpa, which has always been strong, unlike that with his father. At times Hiram's relationship with Dad (mainly offstage) seems added on to the story, and there's just too much about the cute, small-town "characters." But Crowe shows violent racism in daily life as well as in the drama of the trial, and he adds an edgy whodunit mystery element that will hold readers to the end. Teens will recognize how easy it is for Hiram to be a bystander to bigotry and will feel the horror of his sudden awakening to the evil that is part of "normal" life. Hazel Rochman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

Mississippi Trial, 1955 - An important book that everyone should read
Mississippi Trial, 1955 is an eye-opening account of the tragic events leading up to the murder of Emmett Till, an African American boy from Chicago visiting relatives in 1950's Mississippi. This fictional story is based on true events and is told through the eyes of Hiram Hilburn, a white 16-year-old boy visiting his beloved grandfather in Mississippi for the summer. As a tentative connection forms between Hiram and Emmett, Hiram must soon face the realities around him as a local young man from Mississippi decides to viciously show Emmett his place. This initial attack triggers a chain of events that lead to the brutal murder of Emmett. As Hiram begins to see the depth of hatred and racism around him, he finally starts to understand the reasons behind the tension in the relationship between his grandfather and his civil rights-minded father. This story illustrates Hiram's inner struggle as he discovers difficult truths about the grandfather he loves, and comes face to face with the harsh and ugly realities of racism in the south. This book does a wonderful job of giving readers a glimpse into a dark part of our country's history that needs to be remembered, examined, and learned from - not forgotten. As a reader I felt like I was there is Mississippi with Hiram as he struggled with his own feelings and whether he should risk his own safety to do what he felt was right. This is an excellent book that is tough to read at times, but that shines a light on human darkness and demands that we don't look away. I highly recommend this book!

Adults and Teens should read this one
Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Montgomery Bus Boycott, Freedom Rides, and the March on Washington. But one name and event is often missing: Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old black boy from Chicago who was brutally murdered, his body dumped in the Tallahatchie River, for allegedly whistling at a white woman.
Told though the eyes of Hiram Hillburn, a white teenager who has come to spend the summer with his grandfather, the reader is taken into the heart of racism at a time when the passions of the south were volatile and violent. Hiram sees changes in his beloved south, his friends, and even his grandfather; changes which make him doubt his own safety. Hiram witnesses R.C. Rydell force Emmett to eat a raw fish at knife-point. Hiram's grandfather offers no sympathy, warning that "colored boys should know better than to push themselves on white folks." After Emmett is murdered, Hiram doesn't want to stay silent, he wants the truth to be told, even if it uncovers secrets about his own family.
Discuss of racism as it stands in our country today, and what can be done to prevent it.

Mississippi Trial Review by a 7th grade student
Mississippi Trial, 1955
by Chris Crowe (Penguin Group, NY) 229 pages

Most historical fiction books I have read are pretty good. This book fit in just perfectly, it wasn't my favorite book but I liked it. I have never read a book by Chris Crowe but the cover drew my attention and the excerpt got me interested. The topic he wrote about was difficult, but not rare.
The story takes place in the southern part of the United States in the state of Mississippi in 1955. At this time there was a lot of slavery that took place in this area. African-Americans were treated unfairly, unequal, and like they were property of their owners. All the rich people had big houses with Negro maids/servants and large plantations, or farms with lots of slaves working in the fields. This group of rich people included a family called the Hillburn's.
The Hillburn grandparents were wealthy people that owned many slaves. Their grandson Hiram came down every summer to visit. One summer when Hiram was nine he was at his grandparents' house. It was just like every other summer until his grandma had died, that's when everything changed for Hiram. His family moved to Arizona and it wasn't until another seven years he finally went back to Mississippi. He was reconnecting with his grandpa and all his other friends he had there. R.C. was his closest friend back then and now he had become a mean and racist kid, he was headed in the wrong direction, but his sister, Naomi, was still beautiful to Hiram. When Hiram and R.C. went fishing just like old times, Hiram met a few Negro kids until R.C. woke up. There was trouble and a lot of it. A week or two later R.C. had said "I'm going to go teach that Negro kid a lesson and just talk to him", after he had been messing with a white person. Three days later that same boy was found brutally murdered and floating in the river. This is what happened when black people and white people mixed. That's what happened in the early 1900's. That's what we did wrong.
This book shows us racism and how bad it really was. It shows how we did horrific things without noticing or caring about what we did to others. The book includes lots of racism and brutal fights, and it shows us how the characters try to change themselves or others around them. That may be hard to understand if you are in fourth or fifth grade and you don't quite understand what happened back in the old days. You may not understand some of the language or words they use in this story. Otherwise if you're old enough to know what the whole book is really trying to tell you then it would be a great historical fiction book.