Summary of Wright Thompson's The Barn

Summary of Wright Thompson's The Barn

This is a summary and not the original book.

The murder of Emmett Till in 1955 in Mississippi was a pivotal event in the American civil rights movement. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam tortured and murdered 14-year-old Emmett in a barn, only to be acquitted.

Bestselling author Wright Thompson uses this barn as a starting point to explore the broader context of racial violence and economic exploitation in the Mississippi Delta.

In The Barn (2024), he traces the history of the land, from its settlement by European colonists to the cotton industry and the legacy of slavery.