Lecture to weave together Till, Faulkner and 'Mockingbird'

American history and literature will collide in the illustrated lecture "Emmett Till, William Faulkner, and 'To Kill a Mockingbird,'" sponsored by the Southeast Missouri State University Center for Faulkner Studies.

Retired professor Henry Outlaw will speak about the case of Emmett Till, an African-American teenager brutally murdered in 1955 in Southern Mississippi. Till's story helped kick-start the civil-rights movement.

The Faulkner Center was established in 1989, after St. Louis native L.D. Brodsky donated his Faulkner collection to Southeast, to sponsor and support research projects related to Faulkner, who was a Nobel Prize winner and one of the most celebrated writers of Southern literature.

Robert Hamblin, English professor at Southeast and personal friend of Brodsky, is the center's first and only director.

"It's really a world-class collection," Hamblin said. "There are hundreds of photos, letters and work written by or about Faulkner. Many of these materials are rare or unpublished pieces that no other scholars had seen before Brodsky donated them to the university."

The Faulkner Center sponsors lectures during fall and spring semesters to generate public interest. Hamblin said guest lecturers typically are scholars visiting the center for research. Others, like Outlaw, are friends who share an interest in Faulkner studies.

Outlaw, a retired professor at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., travels the country sharing Till's story.

Accused of flirting with a white woman, a 14-year-old Till was kidnapped and badly beaten before being tossed into the Tallahatchie River. The men charged with Till's murder were acquitted by an all-white jury, which incited riots across the nation.

"This murder was really the spark that initiated the civil-rights movement," Outlaw said. "Most people think it's figures like Martin Luther King or Rosa Parks. They were the movers and shakers, but Till really initiated it all."

Till's murder outraged and inspired famous authors, including Faulkner and Harper Lee, the author of "To Kill a Mockingbird."

"The book was written around 1960 and is largely about the trial of Tom Robinson," Outlaw said. "Like Till, he's a black man being tried by white men in the south."

Outlaw said a key part of his lecture weaves together the story of Till and subsequent works by Faulkner and Lee.

According to Hamblin, Faulkner commonly wrote about racism and the unfair treatment of African-Americans, but Till's murder seemed to touch him more than others.

In today's terms, Hamblin compared it to the senseless shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn.

"At that time there was a lot of racial violence, just like today we see a lot of gun violence, but once a child is involved it leaves a greater impact on people."

The lecture is open to the general public and will take place in Crisp Hall Auditorium at 4 p.m. Tuesday. A portion of Outlaw's exhibit on the Till case will be on display before and after the lecture.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

725 N. Pacific St., Cape Girardeau, MO