Mississippi Trial, 1955
Mississippi Trial, 1955 is a historical fiction young adult novel by American author Chris Crowe, published in 2002. Set in Mississippi in 1955, the novel tells the true story of the abduction and murder of African-American teenaged boy Emmett Till as well as the trial of his murderers through the point of view of Till's fictionalized white friend Hiram Hillburn. The novel received mixed, but mostly positive reviews and won the International Reading Association Children's Book Award for Young Adult Fiction in 2003.
Plot
in 1955, Hiram Hillburn, a sixteen-year-old white male, lives in with his father. He resents his father for moving the family from Greenwood, Mississippi when he was nine, away from his beloved Southern grandfather. Despite his father's concerns about letting him go due to the racial tensions in the city, Hiram is given permission to spend the summer visiting his grandfather in Mississippi. At the train station he meets his grandfather's housekeeper Ruthanne and her visiting cousin Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy from Chicago. After reuniting with his grandfather, he begins to notice his grandfather's culturally ingrained racism. He meets Emmett again whom he rescues from drowning in a river. They begin talking and realize they have a lot in common.Hiram runs into his old friend R.C. Rydell with whom he joins on a fishing trip where R.C. harasses and assaults Emmett. While Hiram does not participate, he does not help Emmett either and feels guilty. A few days later, R.C. tells Hiram that he is going with some white men to talk to a young African-American man who offended a white woman at a grocery store. Concerned for this young man, Hiram calls the police. However, the police are unhelpful to Hiram; they refuse to act, stating the boy from Chicago has to learn some manners. At this point, Hiram realizes they are talking about Emmett.
Emmett is reported missing shortly after and his corpse is found in the river a few days later with a cotton gin pulley around his neck. Two white men are arrested for kidnapping and go on trial for the murder of Emmett. Hiram delays his trip home to serve as a witness for the trial due to the information he had told the police. His grandfather wants him to stay out of the trial to avoid the drama, but Hiram wants to help find justice for Emmett causing contention between the two. Hiram stays for the entire trial, despite not being called as a witness and the suspects are acquitted of murder at the relief of Hiram's grandfather. Hiram becomes suspicious after seeing his grandfather sell his blue truck but his grandfather becomes angry when Hillburn confronts him about it. After running into his neighbors, Hiram learns that his grandfather was spotted with the suspects on the night of Emmett's disappearance. Hiram, again, confronts his grandfather about this information upon which his grandfather unapologetically admits to being involved and being in the White Citizens Council, fighting integration of public schools.
Having been absent since the night Emmett went missing, Hiram runs into R.C. who tells him that he considered participating in Emmett's abduction but decided instead to escape his abusive living situation and move to Jackson, Mississippi where he had been living ever since, doing physical labor. When Hiram prepares to return to Arizona, he expects an apology from his grandfather but is disappointed to never receive one. He meets his father at the railway station whom he begins to tell everything, repairing their previously broken relationship.