A FEW DAYS FULL OF TROUBLE

The questions surrounding the murder of Emmett Louis Till, a young 14-year old African-American boy from Chicago still haunts many today. Kidnapped into the Mississippi night in 1955, tortured, and lynched. Many stories have been told but very few with the intimate personal account of Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr. He was cousin and best friend to Emmett Till, and accompanied him to the store that was at the center of the events that followed and became the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.

It has taken Reverend Parker sixty-two years to finally tell his story. Having read different accounts over the years, many pressed Parker to start writing down, in his own words, what unfolded during that fateful week in Mississippi. Now, in vivid recall of the events, the last surviving eyewitness to the lynching of his cousin tells his story, with moving recollection of Till as a boy, critical insight into the investigation that was reopened in 2004 (and recently closed in December 2021) and the powerful lessons for racial reckoning both then and now.

In a recent update, after a century of trying, a federal anti-lynching act was signed into law on April 5, 2022. It is officially known as the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act.

Imagine feeling like you were going to die as men visited your grandparents home in the middle of the night in search of the "boys" who were at the store earlier in the week. Then imagine your cousin being kidnapped and taken out of the home never to be seen or heard from again until his badly beaten, unrecognizable body is found. Page by page, Reverend Wheeler Parker reveals an emotional and suspenseful narrative, set against the backdrop of reporting errors and manipulations, racial reckoning and political pushback. What does justice mean in the resolution of a 66 year-old cold case? It's a question that drives a new telling of the story of Emmett Till, as relayed by Reverend Parker, his cousin, his best friend.

Written in collaboration with Pulitzer prize-winning journalist Christopher Benson, A FEW DAYS FULL OF TROUBLE is an exclusive look at that last phase of the investigation into the Till case through Parker's rare access to federal and Mississippi state authorities' confidential documents and briefings.

Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. is a pastor and distinct superintendent of the Argo Temple Church of God in Christ in Summit, Illinois, the church built by Alma Carthan, the grandmother of Emmett Till. A sought-after public speaker, Rev. Parker lectures and teaches on the history of the struggle for equal justice in America. He recently celebrated his eightieth birthday and fifty years of marriage to Marvel McCain.

Christopher Benson, is a lawyer, journalist, and an associate professor in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. With the late Mamie Till-Mobley, he co-authored the Pulitzer-nominated, Robert F. Kennedy award-winning DEATH OF INNOCENCE. He was the Washington Editor of Ebony magazine and has contributed to Chicago magazine, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun Times, The New York Times, HuffPost, and The Chicago Reporter. He also received regional Emmys and a Peter Lisagor Award for exemplary journalism for his work on the documentary Paper Trail: 100 Years of The Chicago Defender.