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The Field
When Hiram goes out into his grandpa's field, his grandfather yells at one of the slaves for stretching and letting Hiram help work. His granfather yells at Hiram too telling him it's no white man's business working in the fields. This was the first event that sparked young Hiram Hillburn's first impression of colored people. -
Gramma's death
Hiram wakes up one early fall morning to the silence of the old house. He notices his granparent's room is all messy and no one is home. Until his granfather arrives with saddening news, that his wife, Hiram's grandmother had passed away. -
Leaving
After his grandma's death Hiram's dad decides it's time for Hiram to move back to Arizona with his parents. At first he resists and doesn't want to go but in the end, he knows there is no way around his dad and ends up leaving. -
Arrival
After staying in Arizona until Hiram turns 16 and his parents have more kids. He hears about is granfather's stroke and decides it's best to go back to Greenwood, Mississippi for the summer and help his grandfather. With that being the case Hiram's father eventually lets him go but only to be back in time before school starts again. -
Meeting Emmett
When Hiram gets picked up from the train station the day he arrives back to Greenwood, he meets the new maid Ruthanne that his grantather hired but also her niece from Chicago, his name was Emmett Till. -
Emmett's drowning incident!
The day after just getting in, Hiram decides to go for a walk down to his favorite spot at the Tallahatchie river. However, when he is there he is startled by the sudden cry from up stream a little. The cry ends up coming from Emmett Till, the boy who he had just met. Fortunetly, Hiram goes into the water and saves him. -
The meet up
Not only does Hiram make a new friend (Emmett) but ends up meeting with his old 'friend' R.C Rydell. They talk for a little and catch up and Hiram notices that R.C seems to still be him old self yet maybe worse. -
Fishing like old times
After talking with R.C Rydell Hiram and him decide to go fishing together like old times. So they pick up some lunch and Hiram's grandad's truck and drive to their favorite spot on the river. -
R.C gets mad
After fishing for a while R.C falls asleep after many beers and Hiram sees Emmett and some of his other friends playing around. Emmett comes over to say "hi" to Hiram. Hiram offers Emmett the rest of his lunch. However R.C wakes up and doesn't like what is going on so he decides to bully and torture Emmett a bit. While Hiram stands and watches. -
R.C plans a murder
Hiram finally learns the real R.C and a few days after the fishing incident Hiram can hears a story of a colored boy who was saying things to a white woman. R.C also heard of that and told Hiram that he is threatening to go with two other guys that night and teach that boy a lesson. Of course that boy was Emmett. -
More bad news
After hearing what R.C planed to do it just so happend that the next evening Emmett Till went missing. Stories broke out all over the news, and wanting to help, Hiram told the town sheriff exactly what R.C had told Hiram the night before. However, R.C seemed to have been no where to be found. -
The trials begin
Hiram eventually gets a talk from one of the town deputies to sign a paper saying if needed he will be in court to testify, also to make sure not to leave the state until the trial is over. Hiram does sign. The trial is over a course of about 2 days and a lot of people end up taking the stand, even Emmett Till's mother who came all the way from Chicago. -
R.C's found!
While Hiram decideds to take another walk at night to clear his head from all that has been happening he finds R.C Rydell! They meet face to face and Hiram askes him if he was involved with Emmett's murder. Surprisely R.C said "no" but that he had left only because he had beat up his drunken dad. -
Not guilty!
After hearing so many people talk and being stuck in a stuffy crowded court room for hours the jurors find two people involved with the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till not guilty. Those two men were Roy Bryant and J.W Miliam. Of course Mr. Bryant was happy and so were all the other white folks such as his wifte Carolyn Bryant who Emmett supposedly made inappropriate remarks to. -
Grandpa was involved
Ronnie Remington tellls Hiram he saw his grandfather with the men that night along with his truck. He said that they dropped him off and then took his truck. Hiram tells his grandpa that he heard about this, and the grandpa admits he was there when they beat Emmett up, but they dropped him off before they killed him. Grandpa felt as though he deserved the beating, but felt bad that he had died. -
Murder
This date was the beginning of something big to spark the civil rights movement, and that was the day Greenwood police pulled Emmett Till and 14 year old, dark male from Chicago's body out of the Tallahatchie River. -
The End.
In the end, Hiram Hillburn leaves Greenwood, Mississippi back to Arizona to his parents. He leaves behind his grandfather, the trial and his old self. From this experience Hiram definetly became of age and finally understood why his father never really got along with his grandad. He also learned what was right.
