Person of the Week: Keith Beauchamp

May 6, 2005 — -- Keith Beauchamp is a young filmmaker who has dedicated 10 years of his life to telling the story of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old black boy brutally slain in Mississippi in the summer of 1955.

"It's my obligation to tell this story, as a young individual in this country, as a young person from my generation," Beauchamp said. "It's important that we never forget those that pave the way for us to exist in a free society."

Emmett Till was from Chicago. That summer, he had gone to the farmlands of Mississippi to visit family. One afternoon at a local store, Till allegedly whistled at a white woman. Later that night, the teen was dragged from bed and beaten to death. His body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River.

"Emmett Till's murder, Emmett Till's case was the catalyst of the American civil rights movement," said Beauchamp, 33. "It was because of him that young Martin Luther King decided to take on the Montgomery bus boycott. It was because of him that Rosa Parks decided not to get up from her seat that day."

As a child growing up in Baton Rouge, La., Beauchamp was told Emmett Till's story repeatedly.

"It was used as an educational tool in my household to teach me about racism that still lurks in these Americas," he said. "The first thing my parents would often tell me before I left the house at night was, 'Don't let what happened to Emmett Till happen to you.'"

Two men were arrested for Till's murder, but they were acquitted by an all-white jury that deliberated for only an hour. The men later confessed to the murder but were never punished.

At his funeral, Till's mother insisted that the coffin be left open. She wanted the world to see what had been done to her son. Years later while reading a magazine, Beauchamp came across a photo taken of Till in his casket. It changed his life.

"I saw myself in a way," he said. "And that's why that photograph is still so powerful today. Here you had a 14-year-old, innocent child that was murdered for a simple act of whistling."