Macomb, IL – Rich Egger's guest is Christopher Benson, who wrote a book about Emmett Till with Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobley.
Emmett Till was the African-American teenager who was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 for whistling at a white woman in public. The brutal murder helped spark the civil rights movement.
Benson met Mamie Till Mobley in 2002. They wrote the book "Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America" during the final months of her life. Mamie Till Mobley died of heart failure early in 2003. She was 81.
Benson was on the WIU campus this week to participate in a workshop and a panel discussion and to present a lecture.