The article in the May 11 Wednesday Journal on Simeon Wright’s discussion at Brooks Middle School of his cousin Emmett Till’s murder, brought back memories of my summers on the McCosh Elementary School playground, renamed Emmett Till Math and Science Academy, especially the summers of 1954 and 1955.
We had moved from Columbus, Ohio during the summer of 1953, and I would spend my last year of elementary school at McCosh. It was during the summer of 1954, after I had graduated, and began to spend a lot of time on McCosh’s playground because the city sponsored a summer program, which included games and sports.
It was there that Emmett got my attention; he was very vocal in whatever activity he was involved in. The following year, one of my playmates mentioned that Emmett was missing in Mississippi. A week or so after that, I was shown a copy of Jet Magazine with Till’s mutilated head on the cover.
As a student in my mid-teens, that event made me conscious of a world that was foreign to me.
Leonard Wash
Chicago