I grew up hearing the name Emmett Till.

When I was a child, my parents and grandparents told me bits and pieces of his story.

But I didn't fully understand what happened to him.

Until I turned 14, the same age as Emmett when he was murdered.

That's when I finally saw that picture. It's a photo that

sticks with you. It's one that haunts you. Look at that point. My sisters and I were

afraid of the picture. That picture is stayed with me throughout my life. If they say a

picture is worth a thousand words, an image like that is worth a million

lives.

Emmett Till, lying in a casket, brutally beaten. It's an image you can never unsee.

But how did this young boy from Chicago become a rallying cry for the civil rights

movement? His mother, Mamie Till Mobley.

I want the world to see what is going on in Mississippi, in this great old United States of America.

I'm Leah Ritriger.

I'm an author and a historian.

And before the march on Washington,

before Malcolm X's pilgrimage to Mecca,

before Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on that bus,

there was Mamie.

And now it's time to tell her story,

how Mamie raised her son with a confidence America wasn't ready for.

How could you possibly give a crash course in race hatred to a child who's known only love?

...