thumbnail of American Experience; The Murder of Emmett Till; Interview with Moses Newson, journalist
Transcript
Hide -
If this transcript has significant errors that should be corrected, let us know, so we can add it to FIX IT+
fb these bees physical atmosphere new yorkers happy and what do you learn about the physical a close and coarse and in a lot of collaborations have bled reporting first got there they were more than they expected time for is
loosening audience later when the summer was protested and college and being scanned it also protests are set up a card table off to the side force so that we can see you but it was and it was you know it was so a tricky situation he goes use tense situation to most who do have to travel so tense situation well when sales so the situation is tense situation tax wise well you'll be bothered to love even earlier this month the trials or trials since the storm and so though
he says utilities in states partially because no one knew exactly what was happening on sensitive trials this because if you say that my question is it going to be in pockets of the city partially because long awaited listen that's the topic for reducing the thousands while the trial was tense because we never knew exactly what would happen they just out today in a minute as he questions off the wall question is that when a student you never knew what was that happened during this trial that summer was going to get arrested six they picked that one day
there won't pass the boss summoned to across the street and do a trial for him you assess prior ownership is a big gash my style was the town of fellow that made you know from the outset that he was a segregationist he was a towering anything in the court except segregation of the races i would say compared to people it and serve george smith is overwhelming get and later upon himself to solder represent to white people as well as to even like people under control use a dab some influence do you ran a fifteen acre plantation
so strident was a big influence in that situation i hear that people are taking this composition that's for what their suitcases and innocent person was crying light so i was a big yes men has a tough pair wanted to know used to that straddles a dad who were was supposed to be your witnesses in one of the prosecution sharon does he decided that there was unnecessarily goes to bodily thousand out the tail imitating guest
writer was he actually testified for the defense so i mean has the game i'm going to read that was well let's try it was that he was supposed to find witnesses and he was supposedly working for the prosecution to find witnesses was friar actively working to find weaknesses in this case salad in the morning to eyewitnesses what happened is that there was a two sided tales not a victim when he knew that only go seek to abide it to like you know when that song was so there was the man who had determined that he was going to do what he could to make sure those jazz winfrey and that it used to be
subway really was wait until he would've bought a soup it up to see colorado way and the boy's mother decided not to do that he had his hands and him saying that went on the air you help to look for witnesses that they're about about that have that happen that they view as a reporter is when the situation developed at a child and on the way he was obvious that they didn't have the ten of witnesses that they need so world they had that allow rumors around the black community about to people who had seen things and heard things this was pretty much the naacp operation they had been
killed in the naacp <unk> who involved in voter registration and so and so we decided that der lawyers say is that needed to be done was to go out and try to find some of these witnesses that people have been talking about employers ain't of the finalists in cars used as a come fall it said it would testify because there was good there man what happened so we went to a whole world to get some old clothes and stuff of that nature people involved in the first surge that i went on was so rubio rarely sued naacp director of the region there was ends in more who hated naacp done in cleveland mississippi and there's maybe evers
the state of parisian louis ck and so it though is so close and the son of dr and there are some of these farms churn to locate some of the people who had actually been involved in indicated that they knew something that we thought might be helpful for the trial i guess in his cell so a pool report i wanted to go because it soon need to have some more specific information to be available for the jury and that's why those fervent about gotta know bang knudsen go around those thompson days and day and it was so scary same because you know in one of those light to localize for one says somebody might show up and take live that is a star student and that the people of southern edge but we did come out with some information that was helpful and getting some witnesses
usage a new award for clothes for work well we wanted to do sort of blend into the you know look at where the time a tighter closer to farmers would be where and the people were sharecrop endowment so again it would make data's in suits and their cars they put on those shoes and old clothing and leslie we thought were the best safest way to go out on the cover so that we wouldn't move the family i was in that group that to talk to people away contacted opens about winning re and sought to ensure to him that he would be safe that the group would do what was necessary to make them safe including get them out of mississippi and that eventually lead to police and other
reporters go on our night to isolate in braille any either but he said a situation where the plantation owners were ordered to make sure those days appear when you read i'm amanda bradley do it to actually show to the printers all finally reagan as we read was someone we particularly wanted to locate and although we've been located ought to when they raise those silly to people we know that younger eighteen nineteen years old and he had been coming home that morning when those days my mom and ran a deal and what he actually saw and what he had told people is that
he's so for white people in the cab and those three blacks in the barn body of the trump tower one on the identified two and he also heard the till been beat up than i yell and screaming just been taught to their bar i his arrow to the mountain bradley sees lives on the farm the mild fall i say you know unless the mine will use of a tactic and therefore when a sudden one of the light color and she also witnessed the hearing wanted to be known songs are so when ree was someone who could identify the people that he saw that night and it could also prove that they're not turn to get a loose at atlantic client at tournaments so what it
can get really read to testify or possible policies they what was done basically what we did was to assure him that he would be taken care of that if necessary would be taken out of there or a locality and perfect athlete as if it was taken out deeds in some of mosul in houston too she's going to join those people we're scared to death and then a right to be scared to be closer to the unanimous votes hairstylist was so says wisconsin he would do things too the law was against them and the
church were against than most days until it says were against it so it is very tough to come along those farms were you wouldn't have people and that's it stride and reputation has been so and you have help blacks those he would allow them on his farm town there emanuel well so it was it was kept up to get those putin agreed to get a contested corridors white people to talk about the album wake up to testify is it seems to me i mean i was reading some descriptions of willie mcgee galbraith they were supplied by the grave and that it is hard for us you know from our vantage point now to understand the rain that it took the stand up in open court and well and oliver
yet to those people to testify in court they had to overcome a lot there is a lab possibility of being until the alarm engine on not to testify and not to get involved in fighting mose wright was one and he had threats and some of the religious didn't have what it took to get out there and do that and you get a chord rainfall white people most i'm lovin the owls start today there most farmers people who ran the plantations it was alive and her name is your family's land and the
number one going to be mighty warriors get themselves in big trouble so it took some comparison new convent same to get them to do that sort of thing and really except for trying to read about justice in that situation i know a lot they stand to gain from that and that some people never showed to type cottons in their long lens where they were people who were probably in that truck and went till was taken away as maybe i'm opening moment and the most i do it to do they didn't to look to nitro knows those that barely swallow them had been given to the sort of there but did lobby the new and they were basically and they could
get away with do and they can't they can't there's a separate thing that witnesses were hit in the top militant out that the records that there was that that there were witnesses that we reject in jail about me about that rumors and stories so then some key witnesses were actually hid out to keep them testify and to the most important was what eventually water too tired columns and any lawyers so they apparently were involved in the situation and not only did they manage to his gait to testify in the trial
of those calves when they're with charred was an insane conspiracy and anything else that he thought might've been laid on people who have worked in that sort of situation but it is so that away clean and you have to assume that they were protected it was important as your strengths it too long installments when he would be all beyond on wednesday after the town was so so it is a pretty all these to some of us that those jazz were being kept away from the witness that there are rumors that they can make sure that there was a very very hidden wear clothes what i had heard is that came out of it in sales there were
the stories senator do with an ounce and this and plantations that either way of the result was a say neither collins london's were available thats been going sound looking forward is bad for you israel's involvement from his group the influences and what we did to sort of blend into the look out their woes to change out clothes clothes that was similar to what the farmlands using water and the idea was so not be
detected you know so the runaround those false want to be a people and trying to encourage people to come and testify we knew some of the people you want to get that although it did nicely get them we did talk to people who knew them and people and to talk to them and get tuned to believe that to be taken care of and they came in to tell us why it sings it or less cher whistle while you was at one reasons we did this is because so sure it wasn't going to investigate instead of the nation have been to a number of the prosecution oh saying is that it really wasn't
unusual for small groups to send out a pool reporter brenda i didn't probably young he's got a round there at the time so i wanted to go and as i'm going to go on the for a certain way it's willie loman as situations where news women along to four on what was happening in a different situation and jonathan to serve together later that it is essential we thought to try to get some more witnesses who had a sane sane center of things that might be a benefit to the prosecution was essential because you are not that at some point you saw there was when the case was going to say somewhat kind of firepower for more witnesses say listen to walk it was
obvious from the get go then they did not have when this who had actually seen something happen own witnesses who could stand up and say there's your day except from mose wright who could point out the guys who actually kidnapped or two the trial the way it started off the way was caught with his obvious that the state was in the you know the witnesses and we thought it was essential and i would just like to let reporters there who thought was essential so why news men also won a couple of the night searches ueno trying to locate witnesses that would be more reliable be more helpful witnesses to testify it
was a shaky situation i've been in mississippi own stories before and the new album to be with you what you have to understand is that this was a year when arab i was so uptight in mississippi it was the year after the supreme court could rule that school desegregation was illegal and to love levy's ship was going around making outrageous threats and claim and they would go away lawn that's all of them so a lot of people who looked after their leadership their warships and consequences was that almost it is a typical attended by an innate and there the citizens is really the loss of this
money the st louis says this area republicans of segregation and segregation was illegal so do you write a letter cause they get just as an aside you know what was the reaction in the city we're dealt with the brown versus board the white folks were denied invisible ruling upset white vote mississippi all over the deep so very much so was a visitor they feared to mostly was like in the nba close to white women that
was part of the theme of almost all the protests and they were absolutely serious about that song is that i as a curling their white women knew that was a problem down there with their man it always struck me as interesting that ms is by ms is milo they didn't tell their husbands when it happened at the store went to a supposedly wolf whistle they actually found out about it later when we were young says was bragging about when an actor so we're in the south was really as though those prices social club about that ruling and the very defiant about it and people knew and expected that they weren't going to take
hits and dull it's been windy day what was the jingles and it's flowing into i had to do was so live live in a nightmare he knew what it happened two tiered and knew these people notice he said furry and i slay those another needed do about it we tried to do some things would find and witnesses and that sort of thing but it was moving and there was nothing in the world he could do this was
one of the longest episodes in a lorry on the situation and the way they were hailing it both issues are sensitive place it was say in and coming out with services the boy it by hand then they move along too and i've been there too long to be too and all those kind of things and a survey indicating that they're but a hidden planet there are the naacp and others who tried to smear mississippi a slippery use of a nasty atmosphere to nitro then again there was this so what sir we could do his newspaper people are cause observers huge us caught up in this they knew
he knew all the dune and slipping away getting giving away with that represent fifty years ago the roman walls right system or maybe it does close right from the tiny to disband until we left those attention in the courtroom mozart was joined something that not many people would do than good sense to live to talk about and cozy had been told that unite the two mile and brad came to take to let anyone see another brit a
veto what he knew so it was it was a routine situation twenty gathered there to identify those days when he was as if he does point out people who take until a way that was a dramatic moment and actually i think a lot of press people thought i was going to have quite different results than what it did he was a good fellow and even before you have to stay and i say he had decided that he was going to do it no matter what happens and it was quiet in that place when he stood to point to my head and it was on a lot of strange echoes the who won out of mississippi who
was a long pause and others were fleeing a dance in the situation and it took an awful lot of courage for him to get out there and do what he did deliver the verdict came in they've been able to work with food for the attitude of the white house says in the big crowds where people outside corner so people i think will also accuses the head too bad it to do it to all patients and who involved in a court trial that is set the naacp the commonest press people to kill old
blood prince people we're interfering with their business down their land and if left alone that would take care of this situation themselves clan of course they had never taken care situation in other cases that are taking place down there most low so solemn to an intro to him would talk to eternity said there was a conversation some were told about you too although they might be talking too loud enough or you hear that they were one and while you're down there and one a new piece want to stay open although only eight co wrote and that sort of thing but to know why it's a bilingual mass below zero tess has only
had his reporters was when the conservative and get to intimidate head with her explain why they were taken they took them across the street to catch up where it known to use operating and as they were dictated or because he is one passive bus that school buses and then lu chao formal married and so that there was one real tense moment because we're going to get rid of stunted rows and what i'm thinking we talked for that one thing that that that the comma white spectators outside there was a very festive mood for themselves as they have pictures of like that that's the way white people
women it is saying is that he was an opportunity for a lot of the get together and they socialized to trace those sales silences and that's out there and they didn't and said the courtroom as well as outside the court room on the tone of grownups during the breaks i suppose is where and when they would be most festive employees song when we were rather than going through the crowds it was standing there and sometime in july like he used to do on streets it's a locked away and so you have to walk around and say although had a funeral home worth of furniture a few employees are you going to be just to socialize was it was there a lot of press coverage
the press love those those loads is fresh from everywhere i've done it it it might have so been so fair even india the local papers and mississippi when a terminally ill and those papers than they were beating up on the press people all over the world not just a polite prose not just a white prison the united states now because everybody was terrorist or it was real and the stories she really couldn't understand how people could do that to a t it will what they say viet duc reason bryan so today that the loom
or been added to the story of the sheet metal witnessed and what people actually say they solved been done le scandal is saying to happen in the land of the free and i mean that's what brought to this wrong burris to criticize welch how they wanted to see but they also wanted to be witness to what most people thought that this can be a rope in the park and i just for most the way it turned out to be a nose two defendants were sitting there playing with it is a chain solos and things and it never seemed to worry about what the outcome would be and if this is a question of about twenty
percent of the defendants was a legitimate positive mean for me in the water of the defendants throughout this trial in my lungs didn't seem to have pecan of concern that you expect somebody face in the town of charges that they were facing would demonstrate they were mostly cheerful as they were staring somebody now one of them and are you a new plan with the french finance minister it just seemed to most of people who covenant that to you know i thought that they meant in really deep trouble
what do you think hearts of people the face of this row was enormous online people i think it it made people made and in addition to be an emmy as and it calls a certain amount of inspiration you need to do so something about why they found themselves there some big as though this was the real beginning of the civil rights movement i know some people are certain rules of pop situation the
buses to happen later that the same way in the same year i think it was an accumulation of things that were going on and that includes the nineteen fifty four screw ruling which outlawed segregation in schools ever buy was round of to a certain extent than white people had been killed and let people with no real consequences for a long time and i think killing is he had just turned fourteen and two when you serve in mississippi that brutality for that kind of a crime solar indicated to people and not those notes a
most of the took some initiative and i think we'll begin to move away from the individual saying it's you a boat to go they started doing things in groups and supporting one another and i think this one is a visa to the south and a frail then they use your sin of those all the south to keep listening to place and run in place i think lies a disservice not given him any place and when this thing happened to two way it did and how strange it was so obvious in that and disdainfully justice in these situations it really stir the hornet's nest
and the program is both parties just ok
Series
American Experience
Episode
The Murder of Emmett Till
Raw Footage
Interview with Moses Newson, journalist
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-9w08w3917x
If you have more information about this item than what is given here, or if you have concerns about this record, we want to know! Contact us, indicating the AAPB ID (cpb-aacip/15-9w08w3917x).
Description
Description
Moses Newson Interview about Emmett Till, an African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi at the age of 14 after reportedly flirting with a white woman.
Topics
History
Race and Ethnicity
Law Enforcement and Crime
Subjects
American history, African Americans, civil rights, racism, lynching, Mississippi
Rights
(c) 2003-2017 WGBH Educational Foundation
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:41:18
Embed Code
Copy and paste this HTML to include AAPB content on your blog or webpage.
Credits
Release Agent: WGBH Educational Foundation
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: barcode291037_Newson_01_SALES_ASP_h264 Amex.mp4 (unknown)
Duration: 0:40:37
If you have a copy of this asset and would like us to add it to our catalog, please contact us.
Citations
Chicago: “American Experience; The Murder of Emmett Till; Interview with Moses Newson, journalist,” WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed March 28, 2024, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-9w08w3917x.
MLA: “American Experience; The Murder of Emmett Till; Interview with Moses Newson, journalist.” WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. March 28, 2024. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-9w08w3917x>.
APA: American Experience; The Murder of Emmett Till; Interview with Moses Newson, journalist. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-9w08w3917x