Most everyone knows the story of what happened to Emmett Till. So when reading a book like this, one must ask themselves how does this add to the narrative of this well known story. Tyson accomplishes this in a couple of different ways.

Over time, Till has become a civil rights icon. Tyson humanizes both Till and his mother, Mamie Bradley. Bradley raised her son along with her grandmother after Till's father left her and eventually enlisted in the military. Tyson tells about Till loving baseball and being a mischevious but well behaved boy. Till along with other neighborhood boys would sometimes doo wap under a street light in their neighborhood. His school principal described him as a quiet and average student. The details make him a little boy rather than a civil rights icon and make reading about his death that much more horrific.

In the epilogue, Tyson illustrates the legacy of Emmett Till and how his murder reverberates through to today. In particular, the effects of his murder on people who were also children when the murder took place and the impact it had on them. Tyson refers to them as the children of Emmett Till. These are the same people who in the 1960's became civil rights activists. Tyson argues that while acts of violence on the level of Till's murder are less common today, young African Americans are being killed by gangs, poverty, and too few opportunities.

More information from Carolyn Bryant, the woman who set this whole thing in motion, would have really added to this book. There is some but I was left wanting more. Also of interest to me, was the fairness of the trial if not the final verdict. Tyson lays out how the prosecutor and judge both were more fair than he expected they would have been in Mississippi. From Tyson's description, the trial was as fair as it would have been anywhere else. The jurors were the ones who failed Till and his mother.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book.