While promoting her new movie “The Butler,” Oprah Winfrey told The Grio that the death of Trayvon Martin was the “same thing” as the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till for allegedly flirting with a white woman in 1955, National Review Online first reported.
“Let me just tell you — in my mind, same thing,” she said in a preview of the interview on MSNBC.
She also urged black Americans not to dwell in the past and always remember “how far we’ve come.”
Last week, Oprah said Americans know “diddly-squat” about the history of the civil rights movement.
She also said that when she hears the N-word, she thinks of the “millions” of people “who heard that as their last word as they were hanging from a tree.”
The talk show titan is promoting her new film about a black man who serves as a butler through seven administrations at the White House.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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