August 28, 1955 Emmett Till was lynched.

[spike jones]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

[rurallib]

1. I believe that the date of the March on Washington - August 28th, 1963 -

was chosen to commemorate the death of Emmett Till. (hmmm- 70 years ago today)

Or so says this link:
https://themississippilink.com/news/how-mississippi-and-emmett-till-shaped-the-march-on-washington/

[Boomerproud]

2. So appropriate.

Meaningful and profound.

[spike jones]

3. I was a ten-year-old country boy living in the segregated south in 1955 and Davy Crockett lived in my head 24/7.

It was about two years later that I made the connection between Emmett Till and the Civil Rights movements going on and clearly saw what segregation had hidden from me.

[rurallib]

4. and the whole push behind the one good guy against the state

like Crockett and the Hollywood version of cowboys in the west was to get people to accept not joining into groups to fight for something (such as unions). Much easier to pick people off singly than to fight organized folks.

I was a big Crockett fan as a kid. Then like so many things I learned as a kid that hero was destroyed when I learned that Crockett and the folks at the Alamo died fighting to keep slavery in Texas.
And an addendum to that was that Walt Disney who pushed the Crockett myth was hard core anti-union and racist. He had an agenda that made him bundles of bucks.

[spike jones]

5. Yeah, I learn that too much later and posted it here several years ago. Many if not all Texans do not know that truth.

However, something I have always remembered is that Davy looked me directly in the eyes from the TV set and said, "Be sure you're right, then go ahead."