During a special author event on April 11, historian Devery Anderson will discuss his book Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement (2015), and the crime’s continuing impact.
The Wall Street Journal describes the book as “masterfully researched, drawing on public archives and public collections to present the most detailed account of this horrific story” of the abduction and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955. Drawing on new evidence and interviews with Till’s family members, witnesses and reporters, the book offers a full picture of Till’s murder and its legacy.
The author event with Devery Anderson begins at 4:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 11, in the Frick Center, Founders Lounge. A book signing will follow the talk. Admission is free but RSVPs are encouraged, at elmhurst.edu/cultural.
In 2015, the same year that Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement was published, the book was optioned by Hollywood producers and became the basis for a six-and-a-half-hour ABC-TV series, Women of the Movement, which premiered in January of 2022 and currently is available to stream on Hulu.
Anderson also is the editor or co-editor of four books related to Mormons and the West, two of which won the Steven F. Christensen Award for Best Documentary from the Mormon History Association in 2006. His latest book, A Slow, Calculated Lynching: The Story of Clyde Kennard, was published earlier this month by the University Press of Mississippi.