Saturday, September 27, 2008

Emmett Till

Emmett Till died a month before I was born. Since I discovered his story I’ve written about him several times on my birthday. If you want to see what hate looks like look here (You’ll need to scroll down). His mother, Mamie, should be remembered alongside Rosa Parks.

Strangely enough at the moment, Olivier is studying those people who wear white gowns (I won’t put the name, but I think you know who) and guns in the US in English. We had to look up the white gowned people at home because the lycee computer blocks those kind of sites. So I told him about Emmett and showed him the picture, then I found him the Lyrics of Strange Fruit and he listened to John Martyn singing them. We both felt pretty sick after that.

A day later, he gave a talk on the subject, he thinks it went pretty well, he made an effort to speak slowly to the rest of the class. His talk lasted longer than intended and he didn’t use all of the material he’d prepared (I’m familiar with that one).

4 comments:

GMG said...

Hi Anji! Here I am to enjoy your lovely blog on my weekly visit!
Sorry for being late for your birthday, but happy birthday anyhow!
Emmett was murdered, didn't die...
Look forward to reading you at Blogtrotter, now back in Chania!
Have a great week!

Anonymous said...

Happy birthday!

alan said...

As long as there are those who remember and tell the stories, then perhaps the tyranny will be held at bay...

Thank you, and thank Olivier from me!

Billie Holiday did the first recording of that song I ever heard...especially poignant since on her first tour with a band she saw the subjects...

Like so many of the horrible things that have occurred in this world; never again!

alan

Anji said...

Gmg: Thankyou for your visit. You are right, what a difference a word makes.

Bill: Thanks

Alan:It is important to remember. Olivier does wind me up sometimes about certain subjects but he has a strong sense of right and wrong. I must look up the other recordings of the song.