Show People the Newtown Carnage

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After Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Mississippi in the 1950s by white men for allegedly flirting with a white woman, his mother chose to have an open casket at his wake so that people could see what the murderers had done to her boy. Along those same lines, Roland S. Martin, writing for CNN.com, says that people need to see the the real carnage from the Netwown, Conn., massacre to really understand the gravity of the tragedy.

"One of these mothers from Connecticut should do an Emmett Till moment; show the picture of their child dead in the classroom."

That's a text I received earlier this week from my TV One show producer. When I got it, a chill immediately went through my body just thinking about the possibility of seeing the carnage in such a photo.

When taping this week's edition of my show, "Washington Watch," Sirius/XM Radio host Joe Madison somberly said the same thing. Joe remarked that Emmett's mother, Mamie, insisted on an open casket for her son so the world could see what was done to him by racists in Mississippi.

Read Roland S. Martin's entire piece at CNN.com.

The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff. 

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