The YSU Williamson College of Business and Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past partnered to bring the screening of a movie about Emmit Till to the valley.
 
The movie explores the decades-long fight and actions by his mom to get justice for her son's murder.
 
Keith Beauchamp who produced and directed a documentary the Untold Story of Emmit Louis Till, was the featured speaker at the Williamson College of Business.
 
This was a 29-year labor of love for him. 
 
"I had the pleasure of working with Emmit Till's mother, the late Mrs. Mamie Till Mobley before she passed. She was the wind behind my wings to produce the documentary that eventually led to the reopening of the case.
 
Keith Beauchamp's research, interviews, and documentary also led him to co-write, and co-produce, the award-winning movie Till, which was released in movie theaters in 2022.  
 
In 1955 Till's mother had an open casket so people could see what the murderers in Mississippi did to her son.
 
They had kidnapped the fourteen-year-old, beat, tortured him, and gouged his eye out.  
 
It was that picture that Keith Beauchamp saw which led him to his decades-long journey to tell not only Emmit Till's story but his mother's story and actions as well. 
 
This was one year after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation was unconstitutional.
 
His body was found in the Tallahatchie River, a large fan had been tied around his neck with barbed wire, according to the FBI.
 
Till had whistled at a white woman at a store, who lied about what the teen did.
 
In 2007 that woman admitted she lied Till had not grabbed her and he had not been menacing, nor sexually crude to her.
 
Her husband and his half-brother were accused of the murder, but an all-white jury acquitted them. They later confessed and told the grisly details to a magazine according to the FBI.
 
Penny Wells Director and Founder of Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past emphasizes the importance of that lesson by Emmit's mother Mamie Till Mobley is relevant today.
 
"It doesn't have to be a murder, it can be bullying, it can be someone saying something ugly to someone else. We need to not be a silent witness. We need to see her as a role model and I think that picture shows that. It highlights his mother, not just the tragedy of Emmit Till, but what came out of the tragedy that she was motivated to take action," Mahoning Valley Sojourn to the Past Director and Founder, Penny Wells emphasized.
 
Before the meeting, Beauchamp talked with some students at East and Chaney High School. 
 
At East, he explained the research it takes, and how to write a screenplay.
 
At Chaney, he discussed Simeon Wright, whom he had encouraged to write his story since Wright had first-hand information about what happened at the store, and Wright his cousin was in bed when Till was kidnapped. 
 
Beauchamp said, " We are celebrating Black History Month, and it's very special to be here in Youngstown to tell the story of Till and to share my journey with the story of Emmit Till and what I want people to realize."
 
"This is not simply a movie, this is a movement. It's always been a movement for me to reconcile the past, what happened, what transpired in 1955, but I also want people to walk away encouraged and inspired to put extra effort into understanding not just the history but what must be done now today as we deal with the same social ills of our past," Beauchamp emphasized.
 
"Things have cosmetically changed, but the fight for civil human rights in this country remains the same. The social ills are transgenerational ills that we must first acknowledge and work towards changing," Beauchamp said. 
 
He explained there has been a lot of progress yet there is so much more to do.
 
Although justice was never served in the case, the horrific murder helped galvanize the growing civil rights movement in the U.S. in the 1950s and continues to do so today.