The Clem

            The book Mississippi Trial, 1955 was a very good, but cruel book. I was very mad about some of the things said and done. Some examples of things that made me mad were when African Americans were called the “N” word, and when people would tell them rude things just because they were African American. Also some actions that made me mad were when R.C. Rydell put fish guts in Emmett’s mouth and when the subject of R.C.’s father beating him and Naomi, and the whole Emmett Till murder. Almost anything that has to do with Emmett made me mad because almost every time he was mentioned something bad was either happening to him or about to happen to him. I don’t understand why someone would murder someone for such a minor offense.  I do not know what kind of person would take things that far. The part about Emmett that irritates me the most is that he didn’t know any better not to treat white women just like African Americans. He was raised in Chicago where everyone was equal and it didn’t matter if you were black or white. The men willingly murdered Emmett knowing that he was from the north and didn’t know how segregated people were down in the Delta. Also the men who murdered Emmett got away with it because of the ignorant ways of the south. In my opinion, Milam and Bryant  should have spent the rest of their lives in jail or maybe even get lynched themselves for what they did. The ways of the south were cruel and unnecessary.

            Over all I thought the book was very good. Even though there were a lot of things that made me mad or irritated me, the book was very well written and had a lot of interesting things that taught us about the south. There were a lot of informative parts of the book. The factual parts were the cruel ones, but they were very interesting. The cruel parts make you think a lot and encourages you want to keep reading. Mississippi Trial, 1955 is one of the very few books that actually drew me into the story. Those are my opinions on the book.  

Kelly

            I thought this book was amazing. I thought everything about this book was amazing; the historical parts and even the parts with the made-up characters, I thought it was a nice touch that Chris Crowe added. I would say my favorite part of the book was when Hiram and his Grandpa were in the courthouse and they were there for the trial of Bryant and Milam. At first I thought R.C. killed Emmett since told Hiram that he, Bryant and Milam were going up to Money to teach Emmett a lesson. But when I started reading the book even more they brought in Milam and Bryant and I knew these two for sure killed Emmett. The evidence people shared sounds like they killed Emmett. I mean seriously why can’t they just tell the truth and then they get locked up and then call it a day. They didn’t even get locked up for kidnapping. I think grandpa Hillburn had a say in this mess even know this was not a real character. It’s pretty obvious that Hiram’s grandpa gave Milam and Bryant his truck.

      I felt so bad for Hiram because all he wanted to do was spend time with grandma and his grandpa. But no, something bad had to happen when his grandma died. That made me feel really sad and I felt bad for Hiram’s family and friends because I know how it feels to lose some one that you really love. Then he had to deal with this big trial case and he didn’t even have to testify in it, which didn’t make any sense. I’m glad that he didn’t talk. He only promised Naomi because he had a crush on her, obviously. I am kind of happy that he didn’t tell the information because he didn’t know if it was the truth. Plus the only people he could really trust at the end of the story were Naomi, Mr. Paul, and Ruthane.

Naomi was just trying to look out for her brother and her dad. That’s why she didn’t want Hiram to tell the court about R.C. Well, we know R.C. didn’t even do anything. To tell you the truth, I thought it was so cute to read about Hiram and Naomi together. I was about to cry when Hiram had to leave to go back home and he left Naomi there. He should have bought a ticket for her real quick and they could have gone back to Arizona together. I thought Mr. Paul was an awesome guy. I liked when he would help Hiram out with any problems he had and he would make everything better for Hiram. Basically, Mr. Paul could turn Hiram’s day upside down and make him really happy.

I wish I had a cook like Ruthane because she sounds like a good cook. She always made food for Hiram until he was stuffed. She also would make food for Hiram’s grandpa. Hiram and Ruthanne would talk time to time.

I am glad R.C. finally grew up. I’m happy for him, now that he has a job. None of these characters are real so they couldn’t have done anything since they are made up so that would mean R.C. didn’t do anything.

         I feel so bad that our society was so racist and prejudiced because if people were not like that, this wouldn’t have happened. Emmett Till would be alive and he wouldn’t have any problems now that racism and all that junk is over with for the most part. I’m sure everybody thinks the same way I do about Emmett Till; well not the people that are still racist. Emmett Louis Till was very young and he shouldn’t have been killed no matter what.  Just because he whistled at a white woman doesn’t mean anything. Now if he killed someone you knew, then you should have brought that up with the judge. But since that didn’t happen he shouldn’t have been killed. I just felt so bad for the family, especially Emmett’s mother. She had to go through all that mess and then she found out they are not guilty. That’s so cruel, rude, and disrespectful; I could go on and on.

Nicole

            I think the book was very well written. I enjoyed it and how it explained the lives of people in Mississippi. I think that the language in the south was very vulgar and prejudice. My thought on the “N” word is that maybe it was used too frequently. I wish that everyone would’ve been treated equally in the south. Everyone should’ve gotten equal respect. If everyone in the south had the attitude like Hiram did, the south would have been a whole lot better. They mostly acted like R.C. 

Chris Crowe did a very good job on the book. It was very well written and very creative. The way he wrote the characters was very interesting and fun. The only characters I had a little trouble liking were R.C., R.C.’s dad, and Hiram’s grandpa. Other than that, everything in the book was pretty good to me. Since this book is based on true events of the murder of Emmett
Till, I was a little sad Emmett was brutally murdered. There was no reason to do all that just because he whistled at a white woman. I thought that maybe he should’ve got a stern talking to and to be escorted out of Mississippi since he didn’t know the rules in Mississippi. I don’t think that Milam and Bryant should have done that much to a 14 year old boy that didn’t know any better. I think that was just terrible that such a young boy was so brutally murdered and he was an only child, so his mother lost her only son. I just think it was wrong.

If it were up to me, I would not use the “N” word so much in the book. Other than that, the book was pretty well-written and crafted. I liked how Hiram, even though he was born and raised in southern Mississippi, felt equal to everyone around him. If I lived in the south in the 1950’s, personally, I’d have a rough time. I would have lost my mind from the “N” word being used so profusely, all the racism, and all the prejudiced people there.

I thought that it was very rough in the south at the time of 1955, and I liked how Chris Crowe made that an image in my mind by being so descriptive in the book. I liked how it showed that most of the white people in the south were very racist and prejudice. Chris Crowe really described that and I liked the book a lot. If I had to rate the book from 1-10. I’d give it a solid 8. The book was very descriptive. I liked how I had images of what Chris Crowe was writing. It really helped me out to have an image in my head of the events that were taking place. I really had a fun time reading it. If someone wanted to read about black history or even to just read a good book, I would definitely persuade someone to read this book. 

Noah

            I felt this was a really good book. I liked how Chris Crowe made up some characters but used some real facts. I enjoyed that almost every made up character had their own story. I did wonder why Chris Crowe lead us to believe that RC was the third man, but towards the end of the story we found out Grandpa might have been involved in the kidnapping. I figured that Grandpa sold the truck because that is the truck that Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam used in the kidnapping.

            I feel that RC is gruesome and did some things he shouldn’t have done. For example why did Chris Crowe make RC put fish guts on Emmitt. Why did he make him so racist and violent? What in the world made him poke the fish’s eyes out; there was no reason for him to do that.

             Every time Hiram and Grandpa went to the court house, Hiram always bought something from Mr. Paul. Mr. Paul told Hiram about the school integration. He seemed like he didn’t like segregation, so I don’t understand why he wouldn’t leave Mississippi. Also when they were at the courthouse and grandpa would go to a meeting, I wondered if they were talking about segregation or were they just sitting and talking.

            All around I enjoyed the book. It had some made up parts but some were real too. The book was so filled with details that you were almost able to feel the weather in the Delta. The story, more importantly, told the story of the murder of Emmitt Till. The book wasn’t difficult to read, but if you didn’t know the history of the Jim Crow laws it might have been hard to understand. I also watched the documentary of Emmitt Till, so that helped me understand the book better.

Jordan

Overall I enjoyed the book. It drew me into the story and I had a very detailed picture in my head of what greenwood and Mississippi looked like. Professor Crowe did an outstanding job describing the area and events. I was glad that the chapters were long. I could not put the book down. Even though I liked the book, there were some things that I disliked.

            Not everything in the book was a problem for me but there were a few major things that bothered me.  I disliked that Grandpa Hilburn called himself a southern gentleman. In my eyes he wasn’t a gentleman. He was a southern bigot. I disliked the ending as well. I know authors have their reasons as to what they write, but the ending of the story made little sense to me. Hiram’s brothers and sisters were a problem too. They were mentioned in the book but they served no purpose. Besides things that I disliked in the book, I learned a few things from the book as well.

            I learned how a southern white man would act to a black person under Jim Crow. I also learned that the language back then was very offensive. A white man could call a black person the “n” word and could treat them any way they felt like. It made me feel mad. The Jim Crow laws taught me a lot of horrible things. Those laws taught me how racism and hatred were a part of everyday life in the south I am glad that things aren’t like that today. Besides learning about Jim Crow, there were plenty of things that I enjoyed in the book as well.

            In the book I was glad to see that Chris Crowe did his research about Emmett Till’s trial. I enjoyed Chris Crowe putting the Remington’s in the story.  They were really confusing and very entertaining at the same time. There are things that I liked about Chris Crowe as well. I liked how Chris Crowe wrote the book. I thought that it was a good idea for him to write a story about Emmett Till’s murder. I highly recommend this book to others.

Dontae

Our class read the book Mississippi Trial, 1955. This book was about a boy named Hiram Hilburn and the things he goes through in his early life in Greenwood, Mississippi. He meets a boy named Emmett Till who was brutally murdered and his murder completely changes how Hiram thinks. Over all this was an okay book I found it historical, amusing, and sad at the same time. This book made me learn about the past in the south. I used to think that all of the stuff that was going on back then was over exaggerated and almost made up. Reading this book made me realize that WOW! these things were real and actually happened. It opened my eyes to the south during the civil rights movement and the time of Jim Crow laws.

            All the characters that were in the story played an important role. The characters made the story of Emmett Till seem all the more real. The way that things in this book were described I would have not wanted to live during those times in the south. If I did, I wouldn’t have been able to do 3/4ths of the things that I do now and people that are my friends wouldn’t be allowed to be my friends. When Chris Crowe wrote this book, he didn’t sugar coat anything. He made this book real. He didn’t leave out anything and he wanted people to know how things were in the south. This was an awesome book and I’m so mad that there’s not a second part or a sequel to this book. The book would have been better if he made it a little more fictional. It would have made the book better for me to enjoy.

            Out of all of the characters the ones I liked the most were Ralph and Ronnie Remington. The things they did were hilarious and made me laugh. The character I disliked the most was R.C. Rydell. He was an evil person. If I were Hiram I would have told R.C. to stop being mean and if he had a problem with that, we could have settled it. The way he acted made me mad and almost made me not like the story. But in the end, I understood why Chris Crowe put all the characters in his book

Jaqualin

As a whole I thought the book was ok. I didn’t care for the language though, but the language is authentic to that time period. I think the characters were really imaginative and creative. I think that Chris Crowe went into a lot of detail explaining things so the reader could understand the story. The ending was very depressing because it went into a lot of detail as far as what happened to Emmett. The way people acted in this book was very prejudice. This book Mississippi Trial 1955 was exciting.  

The explanation in this book was tremendous. The telling of the story gave an immense mental picture. However there was too much information about what happened to Emmett. Then the way the people acted in the courtroom was sad. The way the people were too blind see past race to notice these men murdered a child. That was the one heartbreaking parts of the book. I think it should’ve gone some different way. The courtroom part was one of the hardest parts to read.

The book had a gloomy feel to it also. The way people acted wouldn’t fit in society today. There were a lot of racist characters in the book. Hiram and his dad thankfully aren’t racist. The way people were acting wasn’t acceptable and the people in the story were mean. They shouldn’t have done what they did.

             The beginning was a very emotional part because it explained everything. It was touching because Hiram’s grandma died in the beginning. On the other hand Hiram met Naomi. The saddest part of the beginning was when R.C. made fun of the Remingtons. The Remingtons are nice but not right. R.C. shouldn’t have been messing with the Remingtons. Hiram was just sitting there. One of the nicest parts is when Hiram was with Naomi at the bridge.

                  Benjamin

There are many things in this story that really got me going. This book that I have just read is a book that I will never forget. I learned many lessons from this book. All of these lessons in this book really taught me a thing or two. It taught me a lesson on forgiving, love and hatred that was common under Jim Crow in the south. These lessons are ones that I will never forget. I will also never forget the story behind the book.

             One of the things that really got me going was Emmett’s death. I just can’t believe that Milam and Bryant went to that extreme to murder him instead of just beating him. That really got me mad. If I were to meet them I would ask them why they killed Emmett. He was just a boy after all. If they would have known what would happen after Emmett’s death they probably would have left him alone. That was just cruel and harsh what they did. It’s unbelievable that they did something like that to a kid and not really care about the hurt they have caused to that boy’s family. I bet you that Milam and Bryant are not up there in heaven. After what they did, I bet they aren’t even in purgatory.

            When it came down to the trial I was really shocked to death. It was cruel what Milam and Bryant did to Emmett and then getting away with it. The jury was totally unfair. They didn’t care about the crime. All that they cared about was difference in skin color. So the jury allowed two white men to get away with murder because they were white. There were  racist remarks made during that trial. It seemed to me that the jury wanted the family of Emmett Till to suffer for what Milam and Bryant did. They did that by letting Milam and Bryant to get away with murder. 

When I came to the end of the book, I was very shocked but not at the same time really. I was very shocked that R.C wasn’t part in the crime. I thought he did it because he hated blacks a lot. Then when I found out that Grandpa Hillburn was the third man, I was shocked. I thought he was too old to be any part of it. Then I thought about how he hated blacks too and it all made sense. It seemed like R.C knew better than Grandpa.  If I could tell Grandpa Hillburn one thing I would tell him that his wife would not be proud one bit because of what he did to that boy and he should feel sorry for that boy’s family. I feel very sorry that R.C and Grandpa Hillbun didn’t know how to be nice toward the blacks. I feel if they were both brought up differently then they would feel differently toward blacks.

This book was a very good book in my opinion. It was a very tastefully written book. Although it did get me mad at some times. It was a very well written book. I would recommend it to anyone who loves a good book that tells a real life situation but also has a twist in it. This book, after all, would be in the top books that I have read. It was a very good book and I would love to see how others reacted to this book. This book was a book that I shall never forget.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      

Nora

After reading this novel, I was, well, happy. Happy that Hiram was getting away from that prejudiced place. In the end, the book was a great book. The beginning was great, happy, and it got me comfortable in Greenwood. When Grandpa Hillburn yelled at the farm worker, that was not very nice. When Hiram got back to Greenwood, and saw how prejudiced and, well, bad it was, I felt like Hiram. I felt confused; I thought it was a good place. Although I was completely wrong. At the end, I felt like it was best that Hiram high-tailed it out of there, and went back to Arizona. I also felt happy that Hiram was able to have a relationship with his father.

The book was very well written. It had many details and how the people talked was what I would thought they would talk like. It was kind of like I was in Greenwood, viewing that trial. I could feel the heat of the Mississippi sun. I could feel the humidity and rain on that one trial day. Although, the people in the book were not real characters, my favorite characters in the whole book were most likely Mr. Paul, Ralph, and Ronnie. Ralph and Ronnie were just a funny pair and Mr. Paul seemed like a nice guy.  My least favorite character was Grandpa Hillburn, for the sheer fact that he helped kidnap a little boy, and then he did not even say anything about it.

I would certainly recommend this book to a friend. I would not re-read it, though, because I would not like to read the gruesome thing R.C. did to Emmett. I have also learned a lot about the trial and the murder of Emmett Till through this book. I have also learned a lot about the Jim Crow laws, and how most Southern states were. Personally, one of my favorite times to learn about is the Civil War (other than the 1940’s to the 1950’s), but it was very interesting to see how life was different in the South. It was a great book.

Dimitar

I think the whole book was written well and the author, Chris Crowe, really wanted this book to be the bomb-diggity. Also the characters he added were right for the book. He didn’t put in too many or too less. The book kept me reading except for the trial chapter. Chapter 15 was boring and the topic was sad. Getting away with murder is not right. I thought chapter 15 was boring because I knew the verdict of the trial and the chapter was too long. Everything else was just wonderful!

What I learned from this book is that Jim Crow is not a person’s name; it’s a law that affected many African Americans. If I was a white man back in the middle 1900’s I would have been just like Hiram. Hiram didn’t like what people did to African Americans. I guess if I grew up with a father that disliked blacks I would too, but it’s just not right. It’s all about how you were raised. Another thing I learned from reading this book is that you should always have a relationship with your parents unless they’re like R.C and Naomi’s dad. Hiram made-up with his dad because he finally understood him. Harlan thought the Jim Crow laws were terrible. That’s why he didn’t like Hiram being down south. It’s good to be together and renew your relationships with your loved ones.

Now it’s time to talk about Grandpa Hilburn. At the beginning he was just a southern gentleman. At the end I thought he was the worst person in the world except for Milam and bBryant. I know Grandpa was there for the kidnapping of Emmitt Till, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he was a part of the killing too. Also Grandpa selling his truck made him even guiltier. At the end of the story relationships switched. By the end of the novel, Hiram was more connected with his dad, Harlan, and less connected with his Grandpa. It was good that  Hiram reconnected with  his dad.

One thing that I didn’t understand in the book and confused me was Hiram having brothers and sisters. I thought Hiram was going to be an only child. Then all of a sudden his dad and mom had some babies and that was it. Except for the time when Grandpa asked about them once, they didn’t have any important part in the book. It would be nice if Chris Crowe explained why he added those very minor characters.

This is my reflection to Mississippi Trials, 1955. The book kept my attention. It’s now my favorite book that I have read in school. It was awesome that the book was written with Hiram being the storyteller. The novel made me sad, then angry, then happy. I enjoyed that. I want to read more from Chris Crowe.    

Jacob