Arts and Culture
Book Review: The Blood of Emmett Till
You really can’t remember.
For sure, something important happened years ago, something you should recall very easily, but time’s made things fuzzy.
Have you forgotten or, worse yet, have you just remembered everything wrong? Usually, you suppose, it wouldn’t matter but in the new book “The Blood of Emmett Till” by Timothy B. Tyson, it surely does.
For decades, Carolyn Bryant Donham didn’t talk about Emmett Till, her accusations, or his murder in 1955. Stories about that day swirled through the years, in court and out, depending on who was asked, but she kept mum until she read a book by Tyson, about a similar incident that happened 15 years after Till was killed.
She reached out to Tyson, he claims, ready to talk.
She’d written a biography, she said, and wanted it, and some other documents, to be archived appropriately. She denied remembering much, really, but it was during one of their interviews that Carolyn, at whom Till supposedly flirted, dropped a bombshell: she said Till never did what he was accused of doing.
He didn’t do it.
Contrary to popular notions, says Tyson, it’s unlikely that Emmett Till wasn’t aware of the dangers of interacting with white folks in 1955 Mississippi. Chicago, where Till grew up, was segregated, too, and he’d surely heard northward-migrating Mississippians talk about trouble.
Fourteen years old and filled with adolescence, he knew the dangers but he might have underestimated them.
He’d begged his mother to let him take a train south to visit kin. She’d probably warned him anew of the risks; Mamie Till Mobley had lived in Mississippi , and she knew that “Citizens Councils” existed in the South, that they’d use intimidation and violence as tools of enforcement.
The Brown v. Board of Education decision had also been released not long before and she must’ve sensed that the South was bubbling, when Emmett Till stepped into a grocery store in Money, Mississippi.
He was there, they claimed, less than a minute.
As author Timothy B. Tyson says, we may never know exactly what happened on that day in 1955. Some key people are dead, some have memories muddied by time or threats – but with those facts in mind, there’s still no denying that “The Blood of Emmett Till,” contains historical TNT.
Donham’s confession aside (as if that’s not reason enough to read this book), Tyson does a fine job recounting what happened to Till, and afterward. No book on Till is complete without that, but the difference is that this one seems to ferret out small details that feel more uncommon; absolutely, Tyson gives additional back-story to Till, his mother, their family, to the accuser and her family, and to the atmosphere that surrounded them then.
Those things are interesting – they’ll keep you reading – but that’s probably not what you’d come to this book for.
Indeed, this is as hot-button as they come, and it’s likely not the definitive word on this murder. Stay tuned – and in the meantime, “The Blood of Emmett Till” is the title to remember.

Timothy Tyson. Photo by Susan Evans.
“The Blood of Emmett Till” by Timothy B. Tyson, c .2017, Simon & Schuster, $27; 304 pages.
Activism
New Oakland Moving Forward
This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.

By Post Staff
Since the African American Sports and Entertainment Group purchased the City of Oakland’s share of the Alameda County Coliseum Complex, we have been documenting the positive outcomes that are starting to occur here in Oakland.
Some of the articles in the past have touched on actor Blair Underwood’s mission to breathe new energy into the social fabric of Oakland. He has joined the past efforts of Steph and Ayesha Curry, Mistah Fab, Green Day, Too Short, and the Oakland Ballers.
This week, several socially enterprising members of this group visited Oakland to explore ways to collaborate with local stakeholders at Youth Empowerment Partnership, the Port of Oakland, Private Industry Council, Oakland, Mayor-Elect Barbara Lee, the Oakland Ballers ownership group, and the oversight thought leaders in the Alameda County Probation Department.
These visits represent a healthy exchange of ideas and plans to resuscitate Oakland’s image. All parties felt that the potential to impact Oakland is right in front of us. Most recently, on the back side of these visits, the Oakland Ballers and Blair Underwood committed to a 10-year lease agreement to support community programs and a community build-out.
So, upward and onward with the movement of New Oakland.
Arts and Culture
BOOK REVIEW: Love, Rita: An American Story of Sisterhood, Joy, Loss, and Legacy
When Bridgett M. Davis was in college, her sister Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer
Author: Bridgett M. Davis, c.2025, Harper, $29.99, 367 Pages
Take care.
Do it because you want to stay well, upright, and away from illness. Eat right, swallow your vitamins and hydrate, keep good habits and hygiene, and cross your fingers. Take care as much as you can because, as in the new book, “Love, Rita” by Bridgett M. Davis, your well-being is sometimes out of your hands.
It was a family story told often: when Davis was born, her sister, Rita, then four years old, stormed up to her crying newborn sibling and said, ‘Shut your … mouth!’
Rita, says Davis, didn’t want a little sister then. She already had two big sisters and a neighbor who was somewhat of a “sister,” and this baby was an irritation. As Davis grew, the feeling was mutual, although she always knew that Rita loved her.
Over the years, the sisters tried many times not to fight — on their own and at the urging of their mother — and though division was ever present, it eased when Rita went to college. Davis was still in high school then, and she admired her big sister.
She eagerly devoured frequent letters sent to her in the mail, signed, “Love, Rita.”
When Davis was in college herself, Rita was diagnosed with lupus, a disease of the immune system that often left her constantly tired and sore. Davis was a bit unfazed, but sympathetic to Rita’s suffering and also annoyed that the disease sometimes came between them. By that time, they needed one another more than ever.
First, they lost their father. Drugs then invaded the family and addiction stole two siblings. A sister and a young nephew were murdered in a domestic violence incident. Their mother was devastated; Rita’s lupus was an “added weight of her sorrow.”
After their mother died of colon cancer, Rita’s lupus took a turn for the worse.
“Did she even stand a chance?” Davis wrote in her journal.
“It just didn’t seem possible that she, someone so full of life, could die.”
Let’s start here: once you get past the prologue in “Love, Rita,” you may lose interest. Maybe.
Most of the stories that author Bridgett M. Davis shares are mildly interesting, nothing rare, mostly commonplace tales of growing up in the 1960s and ’70s with a sibling. There are a lot of these kinds of stories, and they tend to generally melt together. After about fifty pages of them, you might start to think about putting the book aside.
But don’t. Not quite yet.
In between those everyday tales, Davis occasionally writes about being an ailing Black woman in America, the incorrect assumptions made by doctors, the history of medical treatment for Black people (women in particular), attitudes, and mythologies. Those passages are now and then, interspersed, but worth scanning for.
This book is perhaps best for anyone with the patience for a slow-paced memoir, or anyone who loves a Black woman who’s ill or might be ill someday. If that’s you and you can read between the lines, then “Love, Rita” is a book to take in carefully.
Activism
Faces Around the Bay: Author Karen Lewis Took the ‘Detour to Straight Street’
“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.

By Barbara Fluhrer
I met Karen Lewis on a park bench in Berkeley. She wrote her story on the spot.
“My life has been a roller-coaster with an unlimited ride wristband! I was raised in Berkeley during the time of Ron Dellums, the Black Panthers, and People’s Park. I was a Hippie kid, my Auntie cut off all our hair so we could wear the natural styles like her and Angela Davis.
I got married young, then ended up getting divorced, raising two boys into men. After my divorce, I had a stroke that left me blind and paralyzed. I was homeless, lost in a fog with blurred vision.
Jesus healed me! I now have two beautiful grandkids. At 61, this age and this stage, I am finally free indeed. Our Lord Jesus Christ saved my soul. I now know how to be still. I lay at his feet. I surrender and just rest. My life and every step on my path have already been ordered. So, I have learned in this life…it’s nice to be nice. No stressing, just blessings. Pray for the best and deal with the rest.
Nobody is perfect, so forgive quickly and love easily!”
Lewis’ book “Detour to Straight Street” is available on Amazon.
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