ABOUT Susan Klopfer

Susan Klopfer
As someone who loves history and scouting around, when I moved to the Mississippi Delta six years ago, my need for discovery was fulfilled. For several years while living on the grounds of Parchman Penitentiary, the state's oldest prison, I drive around the Delta finding old people with st More...

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Description

This is a blog-book at www.emmett-till.com that began its journey in August of 2009 in observation of the 54th anniversary of Emmett Till's murder in the Mississippi Delta. Till's death was not an isolated incident but reflected the brutality of the region's culture since before statehood. And that is where this blog-book begins. Story after story of individual and mass brutalities weave their way into modern times and the mysterious slaying of a Mississippi civil rights lawyer in 1997. Cleve McDowell, the first black to enter the James O. Eastland Law School at the University of Mississippi, was born two weeks apart from Till and lived and died in Drew, near the place where Till was killed in 1955. McDowell had spent his professional career as a lawyer who frequently investigated the murders of Till and countless others. After McDowell's death, all of his investigative files disappeared.