On March 20, history students, with signed permission slips, watched the movie “Till” during the first four periods of the school day. The movie is based on the life and murder of Emmett Till. 

Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy that was in Mississippi visiting his family during the summer of 1955. While down there, he had an interaction with Carolyn Bryant, who was the co-owner of the store he had shopped in, which led to his brutal death. Till was beaten, tortured, executed and then lynched and dumped into the Tallahatchie River. When his body was found, a ring from his father was one of the only things used to identify him due to the condition of his body. Students are approaching the CIvil Rights unit in their history classes.  

History teacher Shane McBurney was one of the teachers in charge of organizing the movie-watching event. The teachers originally wanted to plan a class field trip to see the movie while it was in theaters last fall, but due to a constricted time frame between when it was playing and making a fundraiser available, the idea was scratched. 

“Knowing it was going to eventually come out on DVD, we thought it would be easier if we simply would just show it in one showing and that would be students had the opportunity,” McBurney said. 

As a history teacher, McBurney is usually able to notice when parts of movies based on historical events don’t exactly match up to facts. According to McBurney, the director and the producers were very careful with the facts because of the sensitivity of the subject but also to honor Till’s legacy. 

“There’s the famous issue of September 15, 1955 ‘Jet’ magazine, where the photographs were published and there was a story. In the movie they portray that as being a cover story, but in reality, it was not the cover story,” McBurney said.  

McBurney showed an interest, almost passion in this topic. Before showing his students the movie, he made sure to present them with all of the facts and allowed them to draw their own conclusions. 

“That could be any one of my students. I care deeply about every single one of them, and to think of something like that happening is scary. That was somebody’s student, somebody’s someone who was taken from them,” McBurney said.  

McBurney believes there is a difference between reading about something compared to seeing pictures and seeing a recreation of it. In a way, it’s easier to connect with what’s happening. 

“I can sit there and I can show a slide deck. I can find a Nearpod activity. Show them photographs. Seeing it put into a dramatization to the events that happen I think are completely different,” McBurney said.  

The movie is centered around the impact of love and the events leading up to his murder, according to McBurney.  

“Seeing her on the witness stand, a grieving mother trying to summon strength to get through talking about her son, I thought it was the most impactful. It’s so difficult getting through that scene without being emotionally invested in,” McBurney said. 

According to McBurney, it’s almost impossible not to get emotional while watching the movie. 

“I had one student who was sitting right in front of me, and I could definitely tell he was incredibly angry when Carolyn Bryan was on the stand,” McBurney said. 

Sophomore Trevor Wilson watched the movie because he heard it was really good and also wanted to get more information about the historical context in the movie. 

“Watching his mother fight for his life in court to get what he deserved and what his family deserved was a very impactful, if not the most impactful part of the entire movie. It really showed how much she loved and cared for her son, and that was what made whoever watching it so emotional,” Wilson said. 

Wilson rated “Till” an eight out of ten. 

“I think it showed a lot of the problems that African Americans faced in this time period, and it was a really good movie overall,” Wilson said.  

Sophomore Emma Lunglhofer decided not to watch the movie. She didn’t want to miss any of her morning classes and make up the work. 

“If we had the chance to watch the movie again at school, I think I would watch it because after hearing the reviews from kids that did watch it they said it was a great movie and worth it to watch,” Lunglhofer said.  

According to Lunglhofer, hearing the things her friends have said about the movie made her want to watch it in her own time. 

“I heard from friends that even though it was a very sad movie at times, it was very good and something they would recommend,” Lunglhofer said.