Guest Column: From Emmett Till to Tyre Nichols, Another Wakeup Call to Take Action

It is often said, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” and make no mistake about it; these words ring more true than ever.

The foundation of our country was shaken once again with the Jan. 27 release of police surveillance footage of Tyre Nichols’ deadly police arrest in Memphis, Tennessee. Nichols, a 29-year-old father, was pulled over by Memphis police on suspicion of reckless driving. What would happen next, just two minutes away from his home, would spark national outrage and open old wounds that would further divide the historically strained relationship between law enforcement and the Black community. 

Media outlets announced constantly throughout the days prior that the Nichols video would soon be released to the public; like many, I was hesitant to join the spectacle of watching the demise of another Black life. Nevertheless, as someone devoted to telling the stories of those who suffered grave injustice, I felt obligated and waited to see what happened. As I watched the videos of Nichols’ encounter with police and heard the pain in his mother RowVaughn Wells’ voice in news conferences afterward as she described the loss of her son, I was immediately reminded of George Floyd, Rodney King and a name that was all too familiar to me: Emmett Till. Having studied the Till case for 30 years, I knew many who viewed the Nichols recording would be unexpectedly awakened to the horrors of our current reality. But are images, cellphone footage and police video enough to spring us into a great movement for change, or will it leave us all racially fatigued in yet another moment?

In 1955, when the late Mrs. Mamie Till-Mobley made her courageous decision to have an open casket funeral so the world could bear witness to what happened to her son, it wasn’t just a simple reactionary act of courage of a grieving mother; it was well-calculated. During the ’50s, many murders took place down South, with some of the victims being a lot younger than Till. Mother Mobley, the NAACP and the Black press understood that Emmett could not be just another soul lost amid many; this could not be just another moment, and Emmett’s death must not be in vain. What made his story different from all the others was his mother’s revolutionary decisions not only to have the open casket funeral but also to allow photographers to take pictures of Emmett’s badly beaten, waterlogged body and publish them in Jet magazine. These photos, circulated by members of the Black press and the NAACP, would eventually reach the masses, thus awakening the “sleeping giant” of good-hearted people from all walks of life and around the world. The public’s outrage spread like wildfire, becoming the defining moment that was the catalyst that sparked the modern-day civil rights movement. If not for this act of collective defiance in the wake of Jim Crow, the movement as we know it may not have happened. When Emmett Till lost his life to the violence of white supremacy, he instantly became the poster child of the anti-lynching crusade – in fact, 67 years after his death on March 29, 2022, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, making lynching a federal hate crime, was finally signed into law.

The tragic death of Nichols is another Emmett Till moment and should serve as another wakeup call to take action. The image and the surveillance footage of his last moments speak a universal language. They show us how far we have come and how far we have yet to go in the United States of America.  

For 47 years, Mrs. Till-Mobley tried to warn us that the vestiges of racism that fueled the death of her son would be waiting to rear its ugly face time and time again at the most vulnerable stage of our lives. She would often say, “Keith, you must continuously tell Emmett’s story until man’s consciousness is risen; only then there will be justice for Emmett Till.” For years into our relationship, I often wondered what Mother Mobley meant by this statement. Now, seeing the ongoing cycle of injustice, I understand what my dear friend was trying to tell me. No matter how hard we fight for justice for Emmett, it’s not going to stop the other Emmett Tills of the world from happening. Mrs. Mobley understood that the fight for civil and human rights in this country would be an ongoing struggle. So where do we go from here?

In our current state in America, those of us who are blessed to be in the film and TV profession using the powerful medium of visual arts must not simply turn a blind eye to the injustice around us. The late great James Baldwin, inspired by Emmett Till’s death, once stated, “Artists are here to disturb the peace. They have to disturb the peace. Otherwise, chaos.”

It must be our responsibility not just to entertain the masses but to educate them as well. This is why Mother Mobley felt it was so important to produce the Till story for the big screen, to remind us of the work that still needs to be done.

If she were alive today, I know she would be rallying behind Nichols’ family and inspiring us all to do so too. She would fight for police reform and lead the charge to get the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act passed into law. As individuals, no longer should we stand idly by and watch injustices take place before our eyes and do nothing. Each of us has a moral obligation to strive not only to be great human beings, but to leave this world in a better condition than what we were born into.

Keith Beauchamp was a writer and producer on Till. He previously directed and produced the 2005 documentary The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, a passion project.