I’ve just seen a face
11/17/2005
I've just seen a face, I can't forget the time or place… So begins a delightful song on one of my favorite albums by my favorite band. But tonight it's different. A different face I can't forget. The face of young black Chicagoan Emmett Till, 14 years old when he was murdered 50 years ago in Mississippi for the crime of whistling at a white woman. Two white men were tried and acquitted at the time despite eyewitnesses, only to admit their guilt later in a feature story in Look magazine. There were others involved in Till's sickening racist torture, mutilation and murder, and today at Dominican we spent the afternoon and evening with Keith Beauchamp, whose extraordinary film The Untold Story of Emmett Till has led to a re-opening of the case by the Department of Justice.
I can't forget that young boy's face because that's how his mother wanted it. The coffin was open, her son was visible so that the world could see the horror, confront it, face it. See the film for yourself, and you'll understand.
We screened the film and Beauchamp spoke to overflow crowds, telling our students to wake up, to think beyond themselves, to dedicate their lives to justice. We'll see.
Meanwhile there are other faces I don't think I'll forget—the faces of the students, today, as they watched and listened, questioned and wondered: What does justice mean? What does it require?
It was a good day in the life of a university. So whatever your major, whatever your school, do a second "major"—in justice. About face.
I've just seen a face, I can't forget the time or place… So begins a delightful song on one of my favorite albums by my favorite band. But tonight it's different. A different face I can't forget. The face of young black Chicagoan Emmett Till, 14 years old when he was murdered 50 years ago in Mississippi for the crime of whistling at a white woman. Two white men were tried and acquitted at the time despite eyewitnesses, only to admit their guilt later in a feature story in Look magazine. There were others involved in Till's sickening racist torture, mutilation and murder, and today at Dominican we spent the afternoon and evening with Keith Beauchamp, whose extraordinary film The Untold Story of Emmett Till has led to a re-opening of the case by the Department of Justice.
I can't forget that young boy's face because that's how his mother wanted it. The coffin was open, her son was visible so that the world could see the horror, confront it, face it. See the film for yourself, and you'll understand.
We screened the film and Beauchamp spoke to overflow crowds, telling our students to wake up, to think beyond themselves, to dedicate their lives to justice. We'll see.
Meanwhile there are other faces I don't think I'll forget—the faces of the students, today, as they watched and listened, questioned and wondered: What does justice mean? What does it require?
It was a good day in the life of a university. So whatever your major, whatever your school, do a second "major"—in justice. About face.
