In practical and profound ways, the past imprints the present. Some try to erase, alter, or deny it, in the name of power, profit or prejudice. History is too often written and then perpetuated by those determined to maintain their supremacy over time. Such bias is also at work when states regulate how racism is taught or what books must be banned from public schools and libraries. Against this backdrop comes a recent Washington Post story that a 1956 Look magazine article by William Bradford Huie falsely “helped shape the country’s understanding of 14-year-old (Emmett) Till’s abduction, torture, and slaying in Jim Crow-era Mississippi.” The Huie-Look magazine story is a prime example of the long-lasting harm that racial untruths masquerading as racial truths levy.
Shortly after an all-white jury found the defendants Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam not guilty of murdering Emmett Till, a writer named William Bradford Huie wedged his way, with cash in hand, into the offices of John Whitten and J. J. Breland, two of the defense’s attorneys. It was the start of a secret exploit designed to recast the history of the savage 1955 slaying of a 14-year-old Black boy. Once the deal was struck, Huie sold the defendants’ “confession” story to Look magazine.
The preface to the Huie article told readers that the “editors of Look are convinced that they are presenting here, for the first time, the real story of that killing—the story no jury heard and no newspaper reader saw.” This was “the truth about the Emmett Till killing,” the “brutal step-by-step full account of what happened.” The 1956 Look story sold six million copies. Thereafter, it was reprinted millions more times for Reader’s Digest readers and others. For several decades, that story has defined the way people think about the Till tragedy.
Causing irreversible damage, however, that story intentionally distorted the facts and deceived the public about what really happened to Emmett Till.
Yes, over the years, praise for Huie’s reporting on the Till murder came from many quarters. “I think anyone who is a historian of that period is very fortunate if they happen to come across Huie’s story.” That is how Juan Williams unknowingly judged him in a 2018 NEH-funded documentary. Thus, Huie and his Till story first became a part of Williams’ book and then part of the Eyes on the Prize: America’s Civil Rights Movement documentary that aired on PBS in 1987.
So much of what appeared in Huie’s 1956 Look magazine story, his Jan. 22, 1957, follow-up story and his 1959 book titled “Wolf Whistle” was false and highly misleading. A 2006 FBI report, for example, said that a “comparison of the Look magazine statements and the evidence reveals a number of inconsistencies or differences.”
Those significant “inconsistencies” related to the actual size of the murder party. Other falsehoods concerned the purported locales (such as the barn where the torture occurred) of the various crimes. All of this was done to protect the defendants and other guilty parties. As Professors Devery Anderson and Dave Tell have made clear in their Till books, the breadth of such fabrications is even greater.
What, then, to make of all of this? First, Huie attempted to conceal the defendants’ criminal guilt as to the kidnapping. Second, the guilt of others involved in the Till crimes was hidden. Third, the true and full story of the Till tragedy was intentionally misrepresented. Fourth, such falsehoods were perpetuated for decades and became part of what was wrongly understood to be the “true” account.
This egregious affront to history calls into question the importance of who tells the story about our history and, ultimately, who determines what becomes history.
There is a throughline from Huie’s lies to certain current narratives around racial justice. Thus, the struggle to expose, as Dr. Lonnie G. Bunch put it, the “unvarnished truth” of racial injustice is an ever-ongoing one. That struggle must be pursued honestly and courageously—witness the recent actions of Ellen and Libby Whitten to rectify the evils done by defense lawyer John Whitten. To that end, restorative justice is vital when it comes to public education, storytelling and historic preservation focused on the 1955 Emmett Till tragedy in particular and the record of racism in general.
Beyond these concerns, it’s inspiring to see the truth finally come to light through the power of community. Recently, a memorial event took place at the barn where Emmett Till was lynched—a place deliberately omitted from Huie’s article—to honor his memory and confront the reality of what happened there. The community gathered at this event powerfully uplifted the truth, countering decades of false narratives and laid the groundwork for a more honest and just future. Their actions demonstrate that unvarnished truth is the pathway forward to healing the racial wrongs of the past and present and creating a just and democratic nation.
