On Saturday, Wright Thompson will deliver the keynote address for the Possumtown Book Fest at the Rosenzweig Arts Center’s Omnova Theatre, and the timing could not be more perfect.

Thompson’s latest book, The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi, adds to the historical record of the murder of Emmett Till, which somehow is simultaneously one of the best-known and least-known crimes of the 20th Century.

Thompson’s appearance Saturday comes just 12 days short of the 70th anniversary of the murder of the 14-year-old near the small Delta town of Money, Mississippi.

In his research for the book, Thompson, a descendant of a prominent Delta family, discovered something that had been overlooked in the historical record: a barn that was the actual site where Roy Bryant and J.C. Milam tortured and killed Till.

To his amazement, the barn was still standing. Unaware of its historical significance, the owner of the property where the barn was located used it mainly to store Christmas decorations. What by all rights should have been a shrine to one of the galvanizing moments in the history of the Civil Rights movement might easily have been torn down, given that the barn was already weathered by the time it was chosen as a murder site.

That the barn was so quickly forgotten may have been by design. What you can’t justify and can’t deny, you try to forget. And for decades, Mississippi has tried to erase the memory of an event the larger world cannot forget.

Thompson’s book is not merely the recounting of an historical event, but the attitudes that contributed to the murder and the efforts to erase its memory by erasing all remaining evidence of it. Bryant’s Grocery Store, the site where Till allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, along with the Tallahatchie Courthouse where a farce of a trial ended with the acquittal of the murderers, remain. There is an historical marker on the courthouse grounds that gives a brief account of the trial.

Bryant’s store has been left to deteriorate, despite efforts to restore it as an historical site. The owners have all but refused to sell it, demanding $4 million for the property. The owners have also turned down a free offer to stabilize the decaying building. The store’s owners are the children of the late Ray Tribble, who voted with other jurors to acquit Till’s killers.

The Barn stands in defiance of such efforts to blot out its historical significance.

For some, it may be easy to write off these efforts to forget an ugly chapter in Mississippi history as a relic of a less enlightened time,

Then you realize that in February, the Mississippi Legislature passed a law banning diversity, equity and inclusion DEI programs in all public schools and universities in Mississippi. The law calls into question what parts of Mississippi history are too unpleasant to teach students. It is currently being challenged in federal court. Supporters of the law say the goal is to eliminate “divisive ideas” from education in the state. Opponents simply call it “whitewashing.”

The forces that sought to eliminate from the public consciousness of the Emmett Till murder were largely anonymous. The forces that may extend that erasure in Mississippi classrooms are known. They are the representatives and senators that write our laws. And they do so without even the slightest pangs of conscience.

It’s been 70 years since the murder of Emmett Till.

The murder of its history continues.

HOW TO GO

• What: Possumtown Book Fest Keynote Address

• Who: Wright Thompson, author of The Barn

• When: Saturday, 10-10:45 a.m.

• Where: Rosenzweig Arts Center, Columbus Arts Council

The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.

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