Open Casket
Philosophical Meditations on the Lynching of Emmett Till
Published on 30. October 2025
Book
Hardback
328 pages
979-8-8818-0637-8 (ISBN)
Description
Open Casket brings political and philosophical clarity to bear on the brutal murder of Emmitt Till and his mother's decision to show the world her son's body.
The open casket is a central motif, a political and ethical focal point, for thinking about Mamie Till-Mobley's pain and suffering and her profound act of truth-telling as she wanted the world to bear witness to the gratuitous, despicable, and atrocious dimensions of anti-Blackness. The critical and powerful essays within this book capture both the horror of Emmett Till's murder/lynching and the powerful agency and the indomitable Black maternal love and courage that Mamie Till-Mobley demonstrated. Through the open casket, Mamie Till-Mobley reclaimed her son's body, and re-signified his dignity and familial-relational meaning to white America, Black America, and the world. It was her agency-in spite of the horror of his disfigured body and the unbearable affective weight that she experienced by such a site/sight-that forced white America to witness the terror of anti-Blackness, to tarry with its own egregious systemic racism.
In solemn recognition of the 70th anniversary of Till's murder, George Yancy and A. Todd Franklin gather interdisciplinary voices to articulate the political, spiritual, and existential significance of Black hope in the face of seeming hopelessness.
The open casket is a central motif, a political and ethical focal point, for thinking about Mamie Till-Mobley's pain and suffering and her profound act of truth-telling as she wanted the world to bear witness to the gratuitous, despicable, and atrocious dimensions of anti-Blackness. The critical and powerful essays within this book capture both the horror of Emmett Till's murder/lynching and the powerful agency and the indomitable Black maternal love and courage that Mamie Till-Mobley demonstrated. Through the open casket, Mamie Till-Mobley reclaimed her son's body, and re-signified his dignity and familial-relational meaning to white America, Black America, and the world. It was her agency-in spite of the horror of his disfigured body and the unbearable affective weight that she experienced by such a site/sight-that forced white America to witness the terror of anti-Blackness, to tarry with its own egregious systemic racism.
In solemn recognition of the 70th anniversary of Till's murder, George Yancy and A. Todd Franklin gather interdisciplinary voices to articulate the political, spiritual, and existential significance of Black hope in the face of seeming hopelessness.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 235 mm
Width: 157 mm
Thickness: 22 mm
Weight
622 gr
ISBN-13
979-8-8818-0637-8 (9798881806378)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
08/2025
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€32.99
Available for download
Persons
George Yancy is the Samuel Candler Dobbs professor of philosophy at Emory University and a Montgomery Fellow at Dartmouth College. Yancy has published over 250 combined scholarly articles, chapters, and interviews that have appeared in professional journals, books, and at various news sites. Yancy is known for his numerous essays and interviews in the New York Times' philosophy column The Stone, and Truthout. He is the author, editor and co-editor of over 25 books, including most recently Until Our Lungs Give Out: Conversations on Race, Justice, and the Future and In Sheep's Clothing: The Idolatry of White Christian Nationalism (coedited with philosopher Bill Bywater. Yancy is editor of the Philosophy of Race Book Series at Bloomsbury.
A. Todd Franklin is the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies at Hamilton College. Franklin's research focuses on the existential, social, and political implications of various critical and transformative discourses aimed at cultivating individual and collective self-realization. He teaches courses on existentialism, Nietzsche, and critical race theory; and he is the recipient of numerous honors and accolades for excellence in teaching. Franklin's most recent work includes "The Transformative Power of Community Engaged Teaching" in Wiley Blackwell's A Companion to Public Philosophy, and "The Gospel According to Baldwin: Prophetic Genealogy as Social Praxis" in Genealogy: A Genealogy.
A. Todd Franklin is the Eugene M. Tobin Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Africana Studies at Hamilton College. Franklin's research focuses on the existential, social, and political implications of various critical and transformative discourses aimed at cultivating individual and collective self-realization. He teaches courses on existentialism, Nietzsche, and critical race theory; and he is the recipient of numerous honors and accolades for excellence in teaching. Franklin's most recent work includes "The Transformative Power of Community Engaged Teaching" in Wiley Blackwell's A Companion to Public Philosophy, and "The Gospel According to Baldwin: Prophetic Genealogy as Social Praxis" in Genealogy: A Genealogy.
Content
Acknowledgments
Casket
A. Todd Franklin
Mournable
George Yancy
Chapter 1. Discerning the Dead
Anita Allen
Chapter 2. The Trace of Evil's Reason: Emmett Till's Open Casket and the Violent Evil of Black Nothingness
Biko M. Gray
Chapter 3. Reframing the Spectacle: The Reality of the Black Child Body
Carolyn M. Jones Medine
Chapter 4. Till's Tortured Body as Sign and Symbol
William Hart
Chapter 5. "If These Waters Could Talk:" Emmett Till and the Terror of Diaspora Waters
Tracey E. Hucks
Chapter 6. Mamie Till's Black Maternal Grammar Lesson
Kris F. Sealey
Chapter 7. Debility of Terror and its Ethical Refusal:
(Re)Encountering Emmett Till
Devonya N. Havis
Chapter 8. Bearing Witness to Horror
Melvin Rogers
Chapter 9. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Horror
Matt Vega
Chapter 10. Revolutionary Black Motherhood Beyond Resistance?
Keri Day
Chapter 11. G-Mom Mamie Till and Her Only Baby: Captive Maternal Ties to Ida B. Wells
Joy James
Chapter 12. Bobo and the Anti-Black Logos
Josiah Young
Chapter 13. Witnessing Emmett Till
Molefi Kete Asante
Chapter 14. Unconscious Resonances: Identification, Ate, and the Mythic Emmett Till
Shelden George
Chapter 15. Many saw Emmett, but not Enough
Blanche Radford Curry
Chapter 16. Emmett Till and the Aporias of Racial Terror Lynchings
Alfred Frankowski
Chapter 17. The Experiential Absurdity of Black Being in the World:
A Black Existentialist Analysis of the Murder of Emmitt Till
E. Anthony Muhammad
Chapter 18. Blues for Mamie Till: Re-Encountering the Emmett Till Exhibit at the
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Paul Cato
Chapter 19. Pathological Agency
Semassa Boko
About the Contributors
Casket
A. Todd Franklin
Mournable
George Yancy
Chapter 1. Discerning the Dead
Anita Allen
Chapter 2. The Trace of Evil's Reason: Emmett Till's Open Casket and the Violent Evil of Black Nothingness
Biko M. Gray
Chapter 3. Reframing the Spectacle: The Reality of the Black Child Body
Carolyn M. Jones Medine
Chapter 4. Till's Tortured Body as Sign and Symbol
William Hart
Chapter 5. "If These Waters Could Talk:" Emmett Till and the Terror of Diaspora Waters
Tracey E. Hucks
Chapter 6. Mamie Till's Black Maternal Grammar Lesson
Kris F. Sealey
Chapter 7. Debility of Terror and its Ethical Refusal:
(Re)Encountering Emmett Till
Devonya N. Havis
Chapter 8. Bearing Witness to Horror
Melvin Rogers
Chapter 9. Mine Eyes Have Seen the Horror
Matt Vega
Chapter 10. Revolutionary Black Motherhood Beyond Resistance?
Keri Day
Chapter 11. G-Mom Mamie Till and Her Only Baby: Captive Maternal Ties to Ida B. Wells
Joy James
Chapter 12. Bobo and the Anti-Black Logos
Josiah Young
Chapter 13. Witnessing Emmett Till
Molefi Kete Asante
Chapter 14. Unconscious Resonances: Identification, Ate, and the Mythic Emmett Till
Shelden George
Chapter 15. Many saw Emmett, but not Enough
Blanche Radford Curry
Chapter 16. Emmett Till and the Aporias of Racial Terror Lynchings
Alfred Frankowski
Chapter 17. The Experiential Absurdity of Black Being in the World:
A Black Existentialist Analysis of the Murder of Emmitt Till
E. Anthony Muhammad
Chapter 18. Blues for Mamie Till: Re-Encountering the Emmett Till Exhibit at the
National Museum of African American History and Culture
Paul Cato
Chapter 19. Pathological Agency
Semassa Boko
About the Contributors