Simeon’s Story by Simeon Wright (with Herb Boyd)
c.2010, Lawrence Hill Books
$19.95/$21.95 Canada
144 pages, includes index
You’ve been doing it since you were a teenager, maybe before. A certain look sideways, eyes lowered; unconscious flex of muscles beneath a flashy t-shirt. A smile, a glance, a wiggle of hips or lips or brows.

Where would you be without a little flirting? Married? Hooked up? Maybe not. But attracting the opposite sex is how our species perpetuates. Flirting is fun.

You would never in a million years think it could get you killed. But in the new book, Simeon’s Story by Simeon Wright (with Herb Boyd), you’ll read about a wolf whistle heard ‘round the country.
Growing up in Mississippi in the Jim Crow era, Simeon Wright knew that there were certain things a black person never did; specifically, he was never remotely disrespectful to anyone who was white. Sassing “Mr. Charlie” was a good way to get in trouble.

Wright learned from his father that some white people could be trusted, though. Mose Wright was a sharecropper. He knew who was fair and who wasn’t, and he wouldn’t work with dishonest landowners.
Simeon Wright indicates that he had a good childhood, despite Jim Crow laws. His parents loved him and he had a big, extended family. In fact, when cousins were scheduled to visit Mississippi from Chicago, Wright “was so excited that I didn’t know what to do.”
One of those cousins was 14-year-old Emmett Till, a big-for-his-age boy, almost the size of a grown man. Everybody called him Bobo and he was fun-loving, but Wright remembers that “he just didn’t know the rules.” On the afternoon of Wednesday, Aug. 24, 1955, Bobo’s lack of knowledge sparked a movement.

After a long day of work, Wright, Bobo and three other boys went to a nearby store for some refreshments. For about a minute, Bobo was alone in the building with a white woman and as she stormed out, he brashly whistled at her. Days later, as Wright slept next to his cousin, two white men entered the family’s house and snatched Emmett “Bobo” Till.

In his foreword, Wright’s co-author Herb Boyd explains that this story almost didn’t see publication. Simeon Wright was tired of people taking artistic license with the story of his cousin’s murder. There were things that Wright didn’t care to remember, but he eventually agreed to lay some nasty myths to rest.

And with crystal clarity and blistering prose, Wright does just that. Recalling a somewhat carefree childhood, Wright tells of youth interrupted by something so horrific that it hurts to read about it. He speaks of his father’s dignity and bravery, and of deep disappointment that was eventually soothed.

About those myths perpetuated by journalists, Wright has a few choice words.  With anger apparent, he advises that “anyone planning on working in the communications field … go to the primary sources. They know what really happened.”

Surprisingly, you’ll probably find this book in the Young Adults section of your library or bookstore, but don’t let that deter you from this powerful, important memoir. Simeon’s Story is a story you must read.

Terri Schlichenmeyer has been reading since she was three years old and never goes anywhere without a book. She lives on a hill in Wisconsin with two dogs and 11,000 books. Readers with questions or comments may write to her in care of this publication.