Summary

Chapter 4, “Emmett in Chicago and ‘Little Mississippi,’” tells the story of Emmett’s mother, born Mamie Carthan. Mamie recalled the horrors of lynching in Mississippi during the 1920s, when numerous black men, women, and even children were lynched or killed at the hands of whites. Because so many Mississippians had migrated to Chicago and its outskirts, the area earned the name of Little Mississippi. Blacks still feared white people at times, but they were largely free of Southern racist atrocities. As a result, the community grew to be a happy oasis where neighbors greeted each other warmly and talked loudly. They no longer had to silence their voices around an intimidating and condescending white presence. These communal bonds most likely helped Mamie and her mother when her father left them in 1932 and moved to Detroit to marry another woman.

Mamie married Louis Till...