(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — A first-of-its-kind stage production of the Emmett Till murder trial transcript will be performed this weekend at the DuSable Museum of African American History.
“The Trial in the Delta: The Murder of Emmett Till” provides an account of the proceedings in a Mississippi courtroom in 1955, as two white men were tried and then acquitted by a white jury on charges they killed Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago. The Black teen allegedly whistled at a white woman.
Co-adaptor Willie Round said the production compresses nearly 400 pages of court transcript into 90 pages. The record only recently became accessible after half a century.
“You could imagine how bad it was in this time. The whole experience is just mind-blowing,” Round told WBBM Newsradio’s Lisa Fielding.
The production will feature key figures in the trial, including the judge, prosecutors, the jury and Emmett's mother.
Collaboraction and the DuSable Museum will present the adaptation Saturday and Sunday at the museum, 740 E. 56th Place.
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