Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 31
PEOPLE & ARTS A31
Friday 23 March 2018
NBC documentary looks at
images that propelled civil rights
By DAVID BAUDER knew his name, but didn't the top news source for This undated photo shows Emmett Louis Till, a black 14-year-old
NEW YORK (AP) — Grue- really know what hap- black America, said MS- Chicago boy, who was kidnapped, tortured and murdered in
some images of a lynched pened, which is the best NBC's Joy Reid, who par- 1955 after he allegedly whistled at a white woman in Mississippi.
Emmett Till were seared into and highest calling for a ticipated in the documen-
the minds of many black documentary like this," said tary. "If you were a mother Associated Press
Americans in 1955 and NBC News Chairman An- in Mamie Till's position, you
helped lead to the modern drew Lack. "Seeing these wouldn't go to NBC or themselves and provide the time. Two examples:
civil rights movement. But pictures underscores what CBS or even The New York the pictures he needed to Ernest Withers, who took
few whites knew of their ex- happened, what really Times," she said. give the movement mo- the picture of a man who
istence at the time. happened, why the mur- The pictures "took the is- mentum. Many demonstra- stood in the courtroom and
That reality is at the top of der of Emmett Till was such sue of lynching away from tions were planned before pointed to Till's murderers
NBC's two-hour documen- a shocking and important the grainy photographs noon to give enough time during their trial, and L. Alex
tary about how images event in the civil rights of a body hanging in the for film to be delivered to Wilson, who followed black
propelled the civil rights ef- movement." woods," she said. The an- New York to be shown on students integrating a high
fort. The film premieres Sat- There's no evidence that niversary of Till's death was the network evening news. school in Little Rock, Arkan-
urday at 8 p.m. ET as the NBC ever showed the pic- later chosen as the date of Noted civil rights icon sas, and continued walking
50th anniversary of the Rev. ture of Till's body until a King's March on Washing- John Lewis is quoted in the despite being beaten by a
Martin Luther King's assassi- "Today" show story on the ton, she noted. documentary as saying, crowd of angry whites.
nation approaches. anniversary of his death "The civil rights movement "without television, the civil The documentary was ini-
Till was the 14-year-old in 1985, the network said. never forgot Emmett Till," rights movement would tially made for MSNBC but,
black Chicago boy visiting NBC wasn't alone among Reid said. "He was to that have been like a bird with- midstream, Lack said he
relatives in Mississippi, killed the mainstream media. movement what Trayvon out wings." The movement felt compelled to request a
after a white grocery store "It was a different America," Martin was to Black Lives changed television, too: prime-time window on the
clerk claimed he treated Lack said. Matter, a symbol that re- evening news programs network. Once common,
her rudely. Decades later, As if to make amends, the mained incredibly potent." expanded from 15 minutes documentaries are now
she recanted her story. documentary shows the NBC's documentary shows a day to half hour to keep such a rarity on network
That was far too late to image of a murdered Till how King innately under- up with the news. television that NBC said it
save Till from being blud- seven times. NBC com- stood the power of images Lack said he also hoped hasn't aired a two-hour film
geoned, shot in the head pared Mamie Till's insis- beamed by the still-infant the documentary would like this since 2004.
and thrown into a river. Two tence that the brutal truth medium of television. A give attention to some no- It is being repeated on MS-
men were acquitted of the of what happened to her peaceful march or sit-in table black journalists from NBC Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.q
crime, even though they son be made visible to ac- could draw yawns from a
later admitted to it. tions 2016 by the girlfriend general public, yet a march
Given a casket nailed shut, of Philando Castile, who of well-dressed children set
Till's mother ordered it open streamed the aftermath of upon by police with dogs
and Jet magazine took pic- his shooting by a police offi- and fire hoses produced
tures of his horrible maimed cer outside of St. Paul, Min- pictures that made many
head, beaten beyond rec- nesota where he had been Americans recoil when
ognition. pulled over for a busted they saw them on the eve-
"For a mainstream, news light. ning news.
audience, my guess is a Mamie Till went to Jet be- Repeatedly, King could
large number of people cause, at the time, it was count on racists to reveal
Anna Quindlen exposes NY social strata in 'Alternate Side'
By ROB MERRILL investment banker, frustrat- lot in life. It's not giving any- This cover image released by privilege reacting in some-
Anna Quindlen has written ed because he's not get- thing away to say she sides Random House shows "Alter- times surprising but often
a book that only a New ting promoted fast enough. with Ricky and in doing so nate Side," a novel by Anna predictable ways — and
Yorker — or at least some- They have twins, at Wil- exposes rifts with her hus- Quindlen. centering her story on a
one who has lived there for liams and MIT; a Jamaican band and many others in couple drifting apart. "You
a stint — could love. The nanny named Charity who the neighborhood. Associated Press could argue they'd lost
rest of the world may have was on the job the day the At 284 pages, the novel is their way, in their choices,
a hard time relating to the twins came home from taut and well-paced. You about what she undoubt- their work, their marriage,"
characters. Even the title the hospital; and a handy- turn the pages wanting edly knows — people of writes Quindlen about Nora
refers to an obscure park- man who works for them to know where things are and Charlie. "But the truth
ing rule that people who and many of their Upper headed. But in the end, was, there wasn't any way.
live on certain Manhattan West Side neighbors doing the story seems all too un- There was just day after
streets don't always under- everything from repairing familiar to anyone who day, small stuff, idle con-
stand. And the characters, washing machines to un- didn't go to private school versation, scheduling. And
well, they are Big Apple to clogging toilets. or attend catered commu- then after a couple of de-
the bone. The novel's plot turns on a nity barbecues. You realize cades it somehow added
Meet the Nolans: Nora is moment of violence involv- the events of the novel are up to something, for good
the director of the Museum ing Ricky the handyman Very Important to the char- or for ill or for both."
of Jewelry, which consists and one of the neighbors acters, but to those of us The real star of the novel is
mostly of pieces from the after a parking lot acci- looking in from the outside, New York herself. Quindlen
collection of a rich widow, dent. That one act forces it's a story filled with first- — and protagonist Nora —
some of which aren't even Nora to reconsider her re- world problems. Quindlen are head over heels for the
genuine, and Charlie is an lationships and her overall is aware of this. She's writing place.q
