Anne Frank & Emmett Till: Why I Wrote the Play Anne & Emmett

Anne Frank & Emmett Till is an effort to reveal how some of the people the author has known and the seminal events she experienced enabled her to link together, in an imaginary conversation, the seemingly disparate lives of Anne Frank and Emmett Till, two iconic figures who were murdered by societies that couldn’t protect them.

In some chapters the author quotes portions of the dialogue she used in her play, Anne & Emmett, with an explanation of what events triggered the thoughts in her mind. In disclosing her personal views and attitudes, she hopes the reader may come to understand the making of the playwright as well as the making of the play, and ＂why I am as I am.＂

The book is not an academic treatment on the subjects of racism and anti-Semitism. Rather, it is simply how both evils impacted the author’s life and played a major role in the creation of Anne & Emmett.

The sole objective in writing the play and this book has been to convey how state-sponsored hatred kills, and how powerful oppressors use the same tactics and techniques to dehumanize, dominate, and destroy those they consider to be unworthy of membership in the human community.

It is Ms. Langhart Cohen’s hope that if we join Anne and Emmett, and their parents, Otto and Mamie, on an imaginary journey into the realm of memory where they recount their histories, it might help illuminate the way forward for us to achieve a higher level of decency and humanity.

Janet Langhart Cohen is an award-winning playwright, and journalist who grew up in a segregated housing project in Indianapolis, Indiana, and went on to enjoy a career in modeling, television, and public service as the nation’s ＂First Lady of the Pentagon.＂ The National Association of Women Judges presented her with ＂The Lady Justice Award＂ for artistic integrity in writing Anne & Emmett.