Transcript

Topic: Email- Interview with Dan Wakefield

Interviewer: Erick Louis
Respondent: Dan Wakefield
Date: February 28th, 2015
Duration: 3 Days
Background: Dan Wakefield (Born May 21, 1932) is an American journalist, screenwriter, and
novelist. He worked for the Nation Magazine during the time of Emmett Tills death and was
also one of many reporters in and out of the courtroom during the trial indicting Roy Bryant and
J.W. Milam in the case of Emmett Till.

AUTHOR: Thank you so much for allowing me to interview you, your time is much appreciated.
DAN WAKEFIELD: You are very welcome.
AUTHOR: So my first question is: What did you think about the overall case? I mean the state of
Mississippi was really segregated and the Jim Crow laws were much more enforced in the South
than in the North...did you feel that the men were in the wrong for the murder?
DAN WAKEFIELD: Everyone knew that the men murdered the boy. Everyone also knew that
no jury in Mississippi would convict the 2 white men. If you believe it's wrong to murder then
the men were "in the wrong!! The article I wrote about it was in The Nation magazine and was
included in The New York Times 2 books of reporting on the South, but I don't know if you can
get to that. The case shocked the country and the world (there were reporters from all over the
world at the trial) into realizing how bad things were in The South, how black people were in
danger every day. That's what made it so amazing and inspiring when Rosa Parks refused to sit
"in the back of the bus" a few years later in Montgomery, Alabama. I hope you can see the movie
"Selma."
AUTHOR: My second question is how was the atmosphere in the courtroom? In terms of
attitude, feelings, mood?
DAN WAKEFIELD: The atmosphere in the court room was tense. The blacks were upstairs in
the balcony (just as they had to be in movies in those days even in the north.) Sherrif H.C.Strider
was there with his deputies. One of the reporters asked J.W. Milam, one of the murderers - "Hot
enough for you today, J.W.? "Milam said "Hot enough to make a man feel mean."
AUTHOR: InterestingWhat do you think of Mamie Till? What do you think of Emmett Till?
What do you think their role was in the civil rights movement?
DAN WAKEFIELD: I never met Emmet Till because he had already been murdered. I don't
know about Mamie and havent followed her life or work.

AUTHOR: Do you think Mamie Till displayed signs of being a leader? Do you think Emmett
Till left a legacy behind? What was his Legacy?
DAN WAKEFIELD: Again I dont know too much about Mamie Till, The "hero" of the trial for
many was Emmett Till's grandfather, Moses Wright, who stood up in court and identified Bryant
and Milam as the men who forced Emmett out of his house and took him away, never to be seen
alive again. Emmett Till himself didn't "leave a legacy" - he didn't intend to be murdered! The
legacy of his killing and of the trial was to put a spotlight in the inhumanity of the racial system
in the South - and in fact in all America.
AUTHOR: Thank you so much for your time. God Bless you and your family