Mississippi Trial, 1955 Racism affected the opinions, actions, and way of life during the 20th century. Hiram Hillburn was born and raised in a racist, Mississippi home. Once his Grama died, he moved back home with his dad with completely different opinions than Grampa. He goes back to Grampas after a few years to visit one of the biggest tragedies of that time took place; The murder and kidnapping of Emmit Till.The author, Chris Crowe, uses allusions to demonstrate the way that the Holocaust and the Jim Crow Laws affected the south in the middle of the 20th century and how racism affected their day to day life. Throughout the book, Hiram constantly observes that his Father and his Grampa don't get along very well. Both people have very different …show more content…
They lived on lots of land with lots of slaves (colored people). Hiram's father did not agree with these racially motivated ideas and this led to tension and friction among the family. Throughout the story, Hiram sees why these ideas are wrong but he doesn't really want to disagree with Grampa because he is not quite sure of his opinions yet. He compares racism to the Holocaust by saying it isn't as bad as what happened to the Jewish people but deep down I believe that he knew that it was still wrong whether there were mass killings or not. On page 76, Hiram states “ I could see where segregation wasn't really fair, but it wasn't the same as something like the Nazis killing all those jews” (Crowe, 76). Him comparing the two tragedies shows the differences between the two because of the time, place and actions, but they are also very closely related because of the racially motivated and inhumane ideas, as well as actions. During the trial of Emmit Till, there were lots of law enforcement officers inside of the courthouse participating in the case. Because of how racist these officers were, they thought that this inhumane, horrible tragedy was something funny and something to laugh about. While sitting in the courtroom, …show more content…
The people really didn't seem like they wanted to be a part of anything involving the murder of a colored boy. They saw this as an inconvenience that they didn't want to be bothered with; hence, “kettle of ours” in the quote. They compare communists and the Nazis because of how they go on killing sprees, but because they don't live in Germany it isn't their problem is the point they're getting at. On page 11, early in the story, It states “And we've got our own problems to take care of, so it's kettle of ours if Comies or Nazis or anybody else wants to go killing each other” (Crowe,11). This quote compares the killing between the Nazis killing the jews, and the white people killing the colored