Mine Till Dawn
How a tragic story of American racial violence connected with a callow youth from the Home Counties.
It would be wrong to say that I’m looking forward to Chinonye Chukwu’s Till; wrong to the point of sounding distasteful. However, this is a story I’ve been wanting to see brought to the big-screen ever since first encountering the tragedy of Emmett Till in a classroom in a school in Hertfordshire in the September of 1988.
I’d just begun studying for an ‘A’-Level in Politics & Government and with the course comprising studies of both the British and American political systems, the man in charge of all things US-related decided to screen the PBS series Eyes On The Prize.
The teacher in question was one Colin Wood, now enjoying retirement in New Zealand, I believe. And as for why he showed the award-winning history of the civil rights movement in its entirety, well… I’m afraid I don’t have a good answer for you.
It certainly wasn’t because the movement was a key part of the curriculum. However, by the time the class encountered Emmett Louis Till, I was aware that this was a topic that would interest me for the rest of my life, just as the story of 14-year-old’s murder for that most heinous of crimes of whistling at a white woman would forever remain under my skin.
Though now I’m older than Colin was when he taught the class, I can’t say I know why he dedicated so much time to something that was simultaneously irrelevant and utterly compelling. If I was to chance an answer, it would be that, when you’re young, you can be forgiven for thinking that justice comes into being naturally. With one being convinced that virtue is its own reward, it’s inevitable that the bad guys will eventually come a cropper.
Such naivety was quickly and completely washed away by the revelations of the Judith Vecchione-directed first episode of Eyes On The Prize, the appropriately entitled ‘Awakenings’. Certain images proved especially hard to shake - young Emmett in his coffin, a wound passing for what was once his face; Till’s uncle Mose Wright taking the stand to identify JW Milam as one of the men responsible for his nephew’s abduction and murder. Most sickening of all, however, was the sight of Milam and the co-accused Roy Bryant celebrating their acquittal by making out with their wives like teens at a school disco.
Whether any or all of this makes it into Chukwu’s Till, I’ll be very interested to see. More interesting still, however, will be the way that people, especially young people, react to the injustice of the Till tragedy. As stories such as Emmett’s are still very much a part of the American experience, so I can’t believe the youth of today are as naïve as I was in 1988, a time lest we forget, when Scott and Charlene were the king and queen of Erinsborough.
However, as the son and brother of teachers, what the release of Till has really done is to increase my respect for a profession I’ve always held in high regard. As in a world where it appears pupils are primarily taught that which will help them pass a test, my gratitude towards Colin Wood is unbound, since he took the time to teach things that would help you pass for a decent human being.