UA History Professor Who was One of First to Revisit Emmett Till Case Skeptical of Successful Conclusion

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. – While this month’s announcement of the federal reopening of a 1955 racially charged murder case is drawing national media attention, a University of Alabama history professor who audio taped interviews with key case witnesses says he’s skeptical renewed interest will bring justice.

Dr. David Beito, associate professor of history at UA, interviewed multiple people familiar with details related to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till in preparation for a book he and his wife, Dr. Linda Royster Beito, are co-authoring. Till, a 14-year-old black youth, was kidnapped and murdered. His body was found in Mississippi’s Tallahatchie River. Two white defendants in the case, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, were acquitted by an all white jury, but, according to published reports, later confessed. The motive for the killing was alleged to be payback for Till supposedly whistling at Bryant’s wife.

Based on his three-year investigation, Beito said he is doubtful the renewed efforts will lead to any convictions.

“I think there has been a lot of sensationalism, and I think people need to be realistic about what they are going to find,” Beito said. “The principals are dead. If there were other people involved, it’s real murky. Newspaper reports are contradictory. Physical evidence, as far as I know, was all thrown away years ago.”

David Beito and his wife, chair of the department of social sciences at Stillman College, interviewed several people familiar with the case during the spring and summer of 2001 for a biography the couple is writing on Dr. T.R.M. Howard. Howard, a late physician and Civil Rights leader, helped find witnesses and evidence in the original case.

Among the key figures interviewed by the couple were Henry Lee Loggins and Willie Reed. Reed, who was 18 at the time of the murder, testified in court that he saw Till, along with Milam, two other whites and two blacks, in a pickup truck following the kidnapping. Reed didn’t identify the other men in the truck, but media reports indicated Loggins was one of those men, Beito said.

“We found Willie Reed to be just as credible as most of the journalists and prosecutors who heard him testify in 1955,” Beito and his wife penned in an article published on the History News Network’s Web site.

Beito said Loggins seemed less forthcoming.

“It was hard to get a read on him,” Beito said. “We found some contradictions, but, then again, it was 50 years ago.”

The UA professor said indications are neither Reed nor Loggins had talked with any researchers of the case in decades when they granted interviews with he and his wife.

Following the couple’s interview with Loggins, Beito said he talked with filmmaker Keith Beauchamp and shared Loggins’ phone number with him. Beauchamp interviewed both Loggins and Reed, following the faculty members’ interviews with the pair.

Upon reopening the case, the federal authorities said they were driven in part by information that emerged from Beauchamp’s unfinished documentary and a previous film directed by Stanley Nelson.

While not optimistic that questions surrounding the case – including whether or not multiple people were involved in the murder – will be resolved, Beito said he’s not downplaying the case’s significance.

“It was one of the most important legal cases in American history. It arguably gave a jump start to the Civil Rights movement,” the UA history professor said.

“There were real shortcomings with the investigation. It was rushed. I think an effort was made by members of the prosecution. I think they were sincere, but I don’t think even they thought they could get a conviction.”