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A Few Days Full of Trouble: An Evening with Rev. Wheeler Parker and Christopher Benson 

February 28 @ 6:30 pm - 8:30 pm

In the spirit of our church’s anti-racism work, Winnetka Congregational is pleased to partner with The Book Stall for a powerful and timely community event that is open to the public.

A Few Days Full of Trouble: An Evening with Rev. Wheeler Parker and Christopher Benson

Program Sponsored by The Book Stall and Winnetka Congregational Church

February 28, 2023 at 6:30 P.M. at Winnetka Congregational Church (725 Pine Street, Winnetka)

Public Warmly Invited to Attend (FREE, NO registration required)


Winnetka Congregational is pleased to partner with The Book Stall to welcome Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr., author of the powerful new book, A Few Days Full of Trouble: Revelations on the Journey to Justice for my Cousin and Best Friend, Emmett Till

In a hypnotic interplay between uncovered facts and vivid recall, the last surviving eyewitness to the lynching of Emmett Till tells his story, with moving recollections of Till as a boy, critical insights into the recent investigation, and powerful lessons for racial reckoning, both then and now. Rev. Parker will be in conversation with coauthor Christopher Benson, with a book signing to follow the talk.

More About the Book: In 1955, Emmett Till was lynched when he was 14 years old. That remains an undisputed fact of the case that ignited a flame within the civil rights movement that has yet to be extinguished. Yet the rest of the details surrounding the case remain distorted by time and too many tellings. What does justice mean in the resolution of a 66 year-old cold case? In A Few Days Full of Trouble, this question drives a new telling of the story of Emmett Till, relayed by his cousin and best friend—the Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr., a survivor of the night of terror when 14-year-old Emmett was taken from his family’s rural Mississippi Delta home in the dead of night.

Rev. Parker offers an emotional and suspenseful page-turner, set against a backdrop of reporting errors and manipulations, racial reckoning, and political pushback—and he does so accompanied by never-before-seen findings in the investigation, the soft resurrection of memory, and the battle-tested courage of faith. A Few Days Full of Trouble is a gift to readers looking to reconcile the weight of the past with a hope for the future.

Jon Meacham, author of And There Was Light, says, “The murder of Emmett Till is an inflection point in the story of America–a moment of particular and of universal significance. In this moving and important book, the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. and Christopher Benson give us a unique window onto the anguished search for justice in a case whose implications shape us still. A vital and absorbing book.”

More About the AuthorsReverend 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.

Christopher Benson is an award-winning lawyer, journalist, and associate professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He co-authored, with the late Mamie Till-Mobley, the Pulitzer Prize-nominated, Robert F. Kennedy Award-winning Death of Innocence. He was Washington Editor of Ebony and has contributed to Chicago magazine, the Chicago Tribune, the Chicago Sun-TimesThe New York TimesHuffPost, and The Chicago Reporter. He also received two regional Emmys and a Peter Lisagor Award for exemplary journalism for his work on the documentary Paper Trail: 100 Years of The Chicago Defender.

Details

Date:
February 28
Time:
6:30 pm - 8:30 pm
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Website:
https://www.winnetkacongregationalchurch.org/

Venue

Winnetka Congregational Church
725 Pine St.
Winnetka, IL 60093 United States
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