WHEELER PARKER
A highly respected minister and community activist in Summit Park, IL, Wheeler Parker is a living witness to one of the most sensational cases in the American Civil Rights movement.
In 1955 Wheeler, with his cousin, Emmett Till, traveled from Chicago to Mississippi for a summer vacation to visit their grandfather, Moses Wright. While in Mississippi, Emmett Till was murdered after speaking to a white woman in a store, an event that changed Wheeler Parker's life forever.
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was excited about his trip from his home in Chicago's south side to the Mississippi Delta to visit relatives. Prior to his departure, his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, a teacher, had done her best to advise him about how to behave when interacting with white people. Emmett Till's mother understood that in Mississippi race relations were a lot different than in Chicago. In Mississippi, over 500 blacks had been lynched since 1882, and racially motivated murders were not unfamiliar, especially in the Delta where Till was going. Racial tensions were also on the rise after the United States Supreme Court's 1954 decision in Brown v. Board of Education to end segregation in schools. Two blacks had recently been murdered for registering black voters. Furthermore, the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacy groups began working to maintain life as they knew it.
When on August 24, the boys drove Wright's car into the small town of Money, and stopped at Bryant's Grocery store to buy some candy. Prior to entering the store, Till pulled out some pictures of his white friends in Chicago, and showed them to some local boys outside of the store. The boys dared Till to talk to Carolyn Bryant, the store clerk. Till went into the store, purchased some candy, and what happened as he was leaving is unclear. Till either said, "Bye, baby" or he whistled at Carolyn Bryant. The boys did not understood the magnitude of Till's act, so they did not tell Moses Wright what had happened. They continued to think nothing of the event as three days passed without incident.
However, on the fourth day, early Sunday morning, Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband, and J.W. Milam, Roy's half-brother, knocked on the door of Wright's home. With a pistol and flashlight in hand, they asked Moses Wright whether three boys from Chicago were staying with him. Wright led them to the room where Till was sleeping, and the men told Till to get dressed. Wright unsuccessfully pleaded with them to just whip Till. As they were leaving, they threatened Wright that if he told anyone they would kill him. Three days later, Till's body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River. It was weighted down by a seventy-five pound cotton gin fan that was tied around Till's neck with barbed wire. His face was so mutilated that when Wright identified the body, he could only do so based on the ring that Till had been wearing. Soon Till's murder became an international story.
Wheeler Parker talks with power and emotion still fresh about those tragic days in American history.
Contact the lecture bureau to schedule Wheeler Parker for your next event.
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