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Journalist Suppressed Evidence Pointing to Additional Conspirators Involved in Murder of Emmett Till
Newly released documents suggest a prominent account of Till's death left out some important information.
It is often said that journalism is the first draft of history. In the case of Emmett Till, a prominent news story about his murder was long taken as the definitive account of his death at the hands of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant. Newly discovered documents, however, conform suspicions more people were involved in Till's horrific death.
As the Post report indicates, many had believed that additional people participated in Till's murder, but the Look story deflated efforts to pursue additional conspirators.
Black journalists had been pressuring Mississippi officials and the FBI to investigate and charge additional suspects in the case. Huie's "true account," with its assurance that only two men were involved and its depiction of Till as a defiant brute, effectively ended that effort.
"This confession, as it was touted, suddenly seemed enough to satisfy everybody," said Devery S. Anderson, author of a 2015 book on the Till case. If Huie had reported everything he had learned, "it's possible these other people would have been indicted," Anderson said, though he also said they could have been acquitted.
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