The Barn
The Murder of Emmett Till and the Cradle of American Racism
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Cornerstone
Publishing:29th May '25
£12.99
This title is due to be published on 29th May, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£25.00(9781529154702)
'Haunting . . . The writing is often breathtaking, brutality amplified through perfectly crafted prose.' The Times
'Extraordinary . . . Serious history and skillful journalism, but with the nuance and wallop of a finely wrought novel.' Washington Post
'With a passion for truth and justice, and a fierce determination to dig for the secrets, Wright Thompson has produced an incredible history of a crime that changed America.' John Grisham
How forces from around the world converged on the Mississippi Delta to bring about the most consequential murder in US history.
Emmett Till’s murder is one of the most infamous in American history; a moment that, more than any other, awakened the world to the racism of the Deep South. Yet despite growing up just a few miles from where it happened, Wright Thompson knew nothing of it until he left Mississippi. This is no accident: the cover-up began at once, and it is ongoing.
Over the course of five years’ research, Thompson has learnt that almost every part of the standard account of Till’s killing is wrong. In August 1955, after the two men charged with the murder were acquitted by an all-white jury, they gave a false confession to a journalist: one that was misleading about where the murder took place and who was involved. We now know that at least eight people were present, and many more complicit. And we now know precisely where it took place: inside a barn on a 36-square-mile grid called Township 22 North, Range 4 West.
This book tells the story of that barn. It is the story of what really happened on the night of August 28, 1955, and of the individuals who have spent decades bringing the truth to light. And it is the story of the centuries-old forces that made that night inevitable: forces that, over the course of 200 years, transformed Township 22 North, Range 4 West from Choctaw land, to a slave plantation, to a sharecropper’s farm, to the site of the most significant murder in US history.
The result is a revelatory work of investigative reportage and a panoramic new history of white supremacy in America. It maps the road that the US – and the world – must travel to heal its oldest, deepest wound.
Haunting . . . The Barn is part investigative journalism, part catharsis. Thompson travels back and forth through space and time, describing a brutal murder on one page, riffing about the blues on another. The story meanders like the myriad tributaries of the Mississippi. The writing is often breathtaking, brutality amplified through perfectly crafted prose. -- Gerard deGroot * The Times *
Extraordinary . . . Not only an intimate history of the tragedy, but also a deep meditation on Mississippi and America . . . While sifting through the dirt that buried the facts about Till’s death, Thompson credits the work of the historians, journalists and filmmakers who have sought to tell the true tale. But he crafts a wider, deeper narrative. The Barn is serious history and skillful journalism, but with the nuance and wallop of a finely wrought novel . . . Describes not just the poison of silence and lies, but also the dignity of courage and truth. * Washington Post *
With a passion for truth and justice, and a fierce determination to dig for the secrets, Wright Thompson has produced an incredible history of a crime that changed America. * John Grisham *
It literally changed my outlook on the world . . . incredible. * Shonda Rhimes *
Powerfully pieces together the true story of a horrific murder in the Mississippi Delta in 1955. -- Books of the Month * Independent *
ISBN: 9781804952917
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 35mm
Weight: 500g
432 pages