As a middle aged man who grew up in South Louisiana, I have to say this book made me face some facts that hadn’t been clearly visualized before reading this book. I’m a better man after reading it, at least I intend to be better. I also plan to make the trip to see the monuments and the barn…maybe late August this year.

I agree with others that this is a book that should be read (and taught in high school). If you want every minute detail about the history, including pre-history, of the corruption and destruction of a promising region brought on by the greed of a multitude of countries and businesses, in dealing with what became the state of Mississippi and its many inhabitants who in so many ways are the product said environment and despicable money-grabbers . . . this is the book for you. I didn’t expect all that. So much miserable history. So much degradation of what could have been, should have been, allowed to be great. The loss of multitudes: of fauna and flora, of human lives and human promise. Truly a disgrace and a disaster, permitted by unethical and dishonest politicians, not just in this in this country but world-wide. My problem with the book is that so much of the information and many names, of individuals and families and businesses, and so many of the stories are repeated over and over throughout the book, the murder of Emmett Till gets a bit lost. But it’s necessary in order to come to an understanding of how this nation, at least one area of it, became so hate-filled. I’m not saying it justifies the hatred, but it fomented it. And yet . . . it seems we haven’t really learned a thing from it, and so we keep making the same mistakes for the sake of hatred and fear and greed. I just didn’t expect such an education. For a more positive view of the philosophical view of “othering” one should read Forest Euphoria—a completely opposite view of the same problem.

Read it! You will not regret it.

“The Barn” is an amazing story that connects Mississippi to its history of prosperity and violence, as well as the crossroads of music. The story of Emmett Till is truly horrific, and his death created a ripple that launched folks into the civil rights movement to the point where he has become a symbol of how to take care of each other as well as their memory. This book showed me that Emmett Till is alive and everywhere in our society.

I expected to read an account of Emmett till’s murder. Instead I received a detailed history of America through the eyes of the Mississippi Delta. Thoroughly researched, deeply personal, and achingly emotional, this is the best book I have read in some time.