Revelations on the Journey to Justice for Emmett Till (Virtual)

An Amazon Best Book of January 2023, and called “a unique window onto the anguished search for justice” by Jon Meacham, A Few Days of Trouble is Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.’s testimony as the last surviving witness to the lynching of Emmett Till. He tells his story with poignant recollections of Emmett as a boy, critical insights into the recent investigation, and powerful lessons for racial reckoning, both then and now. With co-writer Christopher Benson and moderator Dr. Vivian Martin, Reverend Parker will discuss this new work of truth-telling—a gift to those looking to reconcile the weight of the past with a hope for the future. 

 Virtual: $5 non-members and members. REGISTER HERE. 

 Copies of A Few Days of Trouble are available for purchase through the Mark Twain Store; proceeds benefit The Mark Twain House & Museum. Books will be shipped after the event. We regret that we are NOT able to ship books outside the United States as it is cost-prohibitive to do so. 

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 About the Authors: 

Christopher Benson—Emmy Award–winning lawyer, journalist, and associate professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism—co-authored, with the late Mamie Till-Mobley, the Pulitzer Prize–nominated, Robert F. Kennedy Award–winning Death of Innocence. Formerly the Washington editor of Ebony, he has contributed to Chicago magazine, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, and The New York Times. 

 Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. is pastor and district superintendent of the Argo Temple Church of God in Christ in Summit, Illinois, the church built by Alma Carthan, grandmother of Emmett Till. A sought-after public speaker, Rev. Parker lectures and teaches on the history of the struggle for equal justice in America. He has enjoyed more than fifty years of marriage to his wife, Dr. Marvel Parker. 

About the Moderator: 

Vivian B. Martin is professor and chair of the Journalism Department at Central Connecticut State University. She is an expert in classic grounded theory and is currently working on cumulative theory of discounting awareness. She also studies how people live with news in everyday life. She currently lives in Hartford, Connecticut. 

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Programs at The Mark Twain House & Museum are made possible in part by support from CT Humanities; the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development, Office of the Arts; Ensworth Charitable Foundation, Bank of America, N.A., Trustee; the Greater Hartford Arts Council’s United Arts Campaign; The Hartford; The Mark Twain Foundation; The National Endowment for the Humanities; and Travelers.