“Republicans” Reprise the Emmett Till Jury

The all-white, all-male jury in the 1955 Mississippi trial of the murderers of Emmett Till joined by their “Republican” Senate juror 2021 counterparts.

“Acquitted — Again” read the headline in the Jackson Clarion-Ledger. Here in Mississippi, that has a very familiar ring. What 43 Republican Senators did in the second Impeachment Trial of Donald Trump brings to mind images of numerous “trials” in the 1950s and 1960s of white men who murdered African Americans in which the jury ignored all the evidence and reached a predetermined verdict of “not guilty.” The contemptuous attitudes displayed by such Senate “jurors” as Josh Hawley (R, Mo), Ted Cruz (R, TX), Marco Rubio (R, FL), Rand Paul (R, KY), Ron Johnson (R, WI), and Lindsey Graham (R, SC) are reminiscent of a famous photo of the smirking faces of Neshoba County Sheriff Lawrence Rainey and Deputy Cecil Price during the judicial proceedings in the case of the 1964 Klan murder of Micky Schwerner, James Chaney, and Andrew Goodman. Apart from the fact that none of the Republican senators was stuffing his mouth with Red Man chewing tobacco, it could have been taken in the United States Senate last week. And the defendant in that case took the same attitude toward the proceedings.

Cecil Price and Lawrence Rainey at their trial in the 1964 Klan murders of three freedom workers, joined by another defendant in 2021 who also knew that there was no chance that his “jury” would convict him.

Reports across the United States of the outcome of the Trump trial used the same technically correct but highly distorting terminology as the Mississippi headline: “Senate Acquits Trump Again” (Washington Post), “Senate Acquits Trump in Capitol Riot” (New York Times), “Trump Acquitted Again” (CNN and Los Angeles Times), and on and on. SNL’s “Weekend Update” took the distortion even farther: “Trump Acquitted by Senate 57–43,” making it seem that 57 senators had judged him innocent.

It is, of course, literally accurate to say that Donald Trump was acquitted, but putting it that way is dangerously misleading. To the average person, “acquitted” sounds like he was exonerated, when the fact is that he was judged guilty by a large margin, including seven members of his own(ed) party. Most of those who didn’t vote to convict did so using the fig leaf of a technicality.

Donald Trump was not “found innocent,” yet that’s the impression that he and his sycophants are peddling. He is again using his old standby “Witch Hunt.” By employing the word “acquitted,” the mainstream media are unwittingly helping him and the terrorists he unleashed.

What actually happened in the Senate lastSaturday amounts to the sort of jury nullification that so often occurred in Mississippi and elsewhere during the Civil Rights era. The 43 Senate “Republican” (they have shown themselves to be against the Republic) jurors in effect said, The facts be damned! We’re on the side of the accused!

Perhaps the best parallel to what happened in the Senate last week is the 1955 trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for the murder of Emmett Till. The evidence of their guilt was overwhelming, but the all-white jury took just a few minutes more than an hour (using most of that time to have a Coke to give some pretense of actual deliberation) to return a “not guilty” verdict. Last week, many of the Trumpist senators didn’t even bother to pretend that they were deliberating.

Celebrating the verdict in the sham trial for the murder of Emmett Till.

In his 1962 song “The Death of Emmett Till,” Bob Dylan wrote words that speak directly to what happened in the Senate trial of Donald Trump’s incitement of insurrection:

But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime,

And so this trial was a mockery …

If you can’t speak out against this kind of thing

A crime that’s so unjust

Your eyes are filled with deadman’s dirt,

Your mind is filled with dust.

Make no mistake, a majority of those in what was once the Party of Lincoln have identified themselves with the cause and practices of those who waved Confederate battle flags and refused to hold murderers accountable during the Freedom Movement more than a half century ago.

{Historian Robert S. McElvaine teaches at Millsaps College and is the author of ten books, including The Great Depression. His latest book, “The Times They Were a-Changin’ — 1964: The Year ‘The Sixties’ Arrived and the Battle Lines of Today were Drawn,” will be published by Arcade in November.}