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Hiram's grandmother dies
Hiram, age 9, loses his grandmother and has to move to Arizona because his father got a job and he couldn't stay with his grandfather anymore. -
Hiram moves to Arizona
Hiram leaves his grandfather and moves to Arizona with his parents, and then he gets four new siblings. -
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Hiram Lives in Arizona
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Hiram Returns to Greenwood, Mississippi
After not seeing his grandfather for seven years because of Hiram's father, Hiram returns back to Greenwood because his father thinks he's old enough to return.
Since leaving, Hiram's grandfather had a minor stroke and Hiram wanted to go to take care of him. -
Hiram Meets Emmett
After the train ride, Hiram gets off to meet Ruthanne, his grandfather's caretaker, and meets her nephew, Emmett Till, from Chicago. -
Hiram Sees his Old Friend
Hiram re-meets RC Rydell, an old "friend" of his from when he was a boy. RC had turned into a drunkie and got into some trouble with the law since Hiram had last seen him. RC asked him to go fishing, and Hiram agreed. -
Hiram and RC go Fishing
Hiram and RC go fishing, and about halfway through the trip, RC falls asleep, and Hiram sees Emmett and some of his friends down the river. As they talk, Hiram offers Emmett some of their leftover food, and just when Hiram is about to give them it, RC wakes up and gets into an agrument with Emmett, and it breaks out into a fight. -
The Ride Home from Fishing
After RC beat up Emmett, on the way home, he said to Hiram that he was invited to go have a chat with a "black boy from the north" who whistled at Mrs. Bryant. Hiram was worried about what that meant for RC so when he got home he called the police to inform them that RC was invited to this. -
Emmett Till's Death
The Common Wealth newspaper said that Mr. Till was abducted in the middle of the night by two men at his aunt and uncles house. Then two days later he appear in the Yazoo river dead. -
Creating a Trial
Emmett Till's death quickly spread throughout the country, when the northerns heard about this they came down south to protest for it to go on trial. When they finally put his death on trial Hiram was called to be a witiness because there was a thrid man in the vehicle that abducted Emmett, the police wanted to have hiram be a witiness in the trial. Since he was a witiness he had to extend his stay in Greenwood. -
Hiram Contimplates Whether or Not to Testify
Hiram isn't sure he should testify against RC, because he wasn't sure if RC had actually done it, and he didn't want to ruin his grandfather's reputation for standing up for a black boy. -
The Trial Begins
The first day of the trial the outside of the courthouse was crowded with people, black, northerners, photographers and more were trying to get into the courtroom. -
Mrs. Bryant Testifies
Mrs. Bryant, the woman who was apparently whistled at by a Chicago boy, goes to testify. When questioned, she plainly states that she does not know Emmett Till. She said "I don't know Emmmett Till. I've never known Emmett Till, or any other Negroes, for that matter.". -
The Trail Finishes
The trail finally finished, and the two men who apparently murdered Emmett, Bryant and Milam, they are found not guilty by the jury. -
The Truth Comes Out
After the "victory" of Bryant and Milam being found not guilty, Milam shot Hiram's grandfather a thumbs up.
When Hiram and he got into the car, it dawned on Hiram: his grandfather was apart of it. His grandfather helped kidnap Emmett Till. When Hiram talked to him about it, his grandfather didn't try to lie. -
Hiram Comes to Realization
As he gets back to Arizona, Hiram realizes that his father was right: his grandfather wasn't a good man. He was a racist man. Hiram never understood that as a kid, but now that he's older he finally understands. And he realizes that his father had told him not to trust his grandfather because of that.
