Mississippi, United States, North and Central America
Place printed:
New York City, New York, United States, North and Central America
Place used:
Boston, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, North and Central America
Date:
November 1955
Caption:
This flier, from a collection of documents related to the Boston chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), provides insight into the Northern reaction to the violence against African Americans in the American South.
On August 28, 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was brutally lynched in Drew, Mississippi. The murder and subsequent acquittal of the perpetrators were catalysts for a new determination among African Americans in the fight for civil rights. Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley said, "The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all!!!"
In the same year, Lamar Smith, a farmer and World War I veteran, was shot and killed on the courthouse steps of Brookhaven, Mississippi, and George W. Lee, a grocery store owner and director of the local NAACP branch, was murdered in Belzoni, Mississippi, both in retaliation for encouraging Blacks to register to vote. The violence shocked the nation and inspired new action in the Civil Rights Movement across the country.
Description:
Printed and illustrated seven-page pamphlet created by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to bring attention to the violence and murder erupting in Mississippi starting in 1954 to the fall of 1955. The front cover of the pamphlet has the title featuring three large, upper case M's formatted vertically with the center M in red while the top and bottom M's are grey. There are eight (8) pages total. The interior pages have text titled "Backdrop for Murder" and accented with three bright red checkmarks in front of sections on pages 4 and 5 that list the murder victims Rev. George W. Lee, Lamar Smith, and Emmett Till. The back of the pamphlet has a line drawn map of the delta region of Mississippi. Red dots mark locations where violent events have occurred in the state. There is a stamp in black ink for the Boston branch of the NAACP.
