Congrats to these Local PlayWrites! Rocket River http://chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/metro/4881379.html Students bring Emmett Till's story to the stage Baytown youth pick civil rights martyr's brutal 1955 slaying as a history project By CINDY GEORGE Copyright 2007 Houston Chronicle TOOLS Email Get section feed Print Subscribe NOW Comments Recommend RESOURCES More images Emmett Till's story Five Baytown middle schoolers who based their history fair project on the brutal murder of a black teen 50 years ago have captured the attention of the FBI agent responsible for reopening the criminal investigation. Intrigued by the death of Emmett Till at the hands of two Mississippi men who believed he whistled at a white woman, the students wrote a play that earned them a spot in this week's National History Day competition outside Washington, D.C. On Monday, the students' preliminary-round performance of Emmett Till: The Sacrificial Lamb of the Civil Rights Movement earned them a shot at becoming national champions. After their final performance today, they'll get to visit FBI headquarters on Wednesday to meet the investigator who recently took fresh findings about the case back to a grand jury in pursuit of the truth about a murder that became a civil rights-era rallying point. "His death had a lot to do with a lot of other African-American heroes standing up for civil rights," said Imani Lee, a Baytown Junior School seventh-grader. FBI agent Dale Killinger, who began re-examining the case in 2004, learned about the project on the Internet. The Houston FBI office connected him with the students. Killinger said he was impressed with the probing questions the children grilled him with over the phone. Why did he reopen the case? What problems did he encounter investigating such an old crime? Did the case leave him with emotional scars? They were the kinds of questions a seasoned investigator would ask, Killinger said. "Maybe we can recruit a new FBI agent or two," he joked. He'll host the students for a two-hour experience where they'll receive an official briefing by the bureau's civil rights unit, take a tour of the building and get a peek into "special operations," the FBI's inner sanctum during a crisis. Advanced research In that era, some thought it a serious transgression for a black male to show any sort of interest in a white female. Probably the most-disputed fact is whether Till whistled at Carolyn Bryant. Killinger's investigation, which led to no new charges, concluded only that Till had whistled. "There was at least one witness who claimed the whistle was not at her," he said. The students said they identified with Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago who was visiting Mississippi when he was killed. His mother insisted on an open casket, and grisly photos of Till's face intensified the civil rights movement. All in advanced classes, the students consulted books, the Internet and newspapers. They interviewed two of Till's cousins by phone. The group decided to convey Till's story through two older women sitting on a veranda and reminiscing about the summer of 1955. The gray-haired ladies are played by Olivia Richard and Imani Lee, both 13. DeMontrey Mitchell plays both Mose Wright, the uncle Emmett Till came south to visit, and the mortician who discusses the boy's body with his mother, Mamie Till. The experience has encouraged him, the 14-year-old said, "by knowing that I have done something good." "What I do is actually show the bond that Mamie and Emmett Till had," said Khrystopher King, 12, who plays Emmett. He said the project "gave me an idea of how bad racism was back then and more about my black history." Candice Archangel, 13, portrays Mrs. Till, "the love she had for Emmett" and her courage in insisting on an open casket at his funeral. "She wanted the world to see what they did to her son," Candice said. Sold confession Carolyn Bryant's husband and brother-in-law, both white, were acquitted of murder charges years ago, but they sold their confession to a magazine a few months after the trial. One of the lingering mysteries of the civil rights era is whether others were involved in the scheme. The Baytown students speculate Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, both deceased, had help. "There were individuals other than Bryant and Milam who were involved in some capacity or another in the abduction of Emmett Louis Till," Killinger said. "In any investigation, and particularly in historical investigations where we're looking at something that is on the conscience of the country, it's important to try to uncover as many of the facts as possible."
