The Atlantic

How <em>The Blood of Emmett Till</em> Still Stains America Today

A new history of the most famous lynching in the country provides context on how racism continues to work in the present.
Source: Bettmann / Getty

What does American tyranny look like? In the past few months, fears about the collapse or degradation of the American democratic system have led many to engage in the grim exercise of game-planning the endgame of tyranny. For some, dystopian novels ground that exercise. Some take stock of the rise of authoritarian powers in the past. Others rely on expert realpolitik analysis from political minds like my colleague David Frum. Regardless of the source, we have arrived at Belshazzar’s feast. The writing is on the wall: It could happen here.

Or, it could happen here After all, it wasn’t too long ago in American history that millions of Americans were trampled

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