(NewsNation) — Although it happened in 1955, it is important to keep talking about the lynching of Emmett Till, Whoopi Goldberg said on incoming NewsNation anchor Chris Cuomo’s podcast.
“This is a little boy who was murdered by monsters,” she said.
Goldberg talked about her new movie, “Till” on the most recent episode of “The Chris Cuomo Project,” which was released Tuesday.
Till was only 14 years old when he died. While visiting cousins in Mississippi, he was accused of flirting with a white woman at a local store. Four days later, white men, including the woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, kidnapped Till, killed him and dumped his body into the Tallahatchie River.
The upcoming film details Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley’s “relentless pursuit of justice” for her son, according to IMBD. At his funeral, Till-Mobley insisted on having an open casket for her son, so people could see what “racist murderers” had done to him, The History Channel said.
“If you’re a black kid growing up, and you’re my age, you start your path in life with the story,” Goldberg said.
Goldberg plays Alma Carthan, who was Emmett Till’s grandmother. Although she was originally supposed to play Till’s mother, she ended up aging out of the role.
“That’s how long it took us to get the movie made,” Goldberg said.
Now, she’s hoping it will open other people’s eyes to what happened as well.
“Various peoples of color have had to take a lot of crap. for no good reason. You don’t know them. You’ve not met them. You haven’t sat down, you don’t know their kids,” she said. “So why are you pissed at that? Why is it that we all can’t be equal? What are you trying to hold on to that makes you say you’re better?”
In June, the Associated Press reported that a team searching the basement of a Mississippi courthouse found an unserved warrant charging Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman, in his kidnapping. Although his family sought his arrest, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict her.
“We know that there are people who haven’t been brought to justice,” Goldbert said. “They don’t want to bring her to justice. They say ‘Oh, she’s an old lady’ — but he never got to be an old man.”
Added Goldberg: “I think there’s nothing wrong with having this conversation in a court. You don’t have to put her in jail. But we need to know that the right thing has been done.”
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
