AMHERST — Yamiche Alcindor’s “ah-ha” moment came when she was in high school and heard the story of Emmett Till, a Black teen from Chicago who was abducted and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after being accused of offending a white woman.

When she saw the photo of Till’s slain, brutally beaten body lying in state, Alcindor immediately grasped the power of the image. That knowledge sparked an interest in journalism and set her on a winding path in its pursuit as a reporter for the New York Times, PBS’s “NewsHour,” USA Today and now as NBC’s Washington correspondent.

“I think that there is so much in this world that’s visual, that can help people connect with each other,” Alcindor told about 100 people gathered at the University of Massachusetts Tuesday for the annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Racial Healing. The event began in 2023 to celebrate the historic civil rights leader on campus.

In her keynote address, Alcindor retold Till’s story, first featured in Jet Magazine in 1955, and pointed to it as a prime example of how powerful, authentic stories ignite movements for justice.

Till was 14 when he was abducted and lynched, a brutal murder for which his killers were acquitted. His mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket. It was the photos of his body that helped stir the 20th century’s civil rights movement.

“When I learned about him, when my mom learned about him, it struck me — oh my gosh. This is a story that is visual, is visceral. It takes and grabs your heart, and especially now as a mother, I think, ‘Oh my god, how did you do that?’” she said.

That emotion has led Alcindor’s journalism to focus on what she called the “hard truths and ugly parts of our country,” including the intersection of race and politics, as well as the American health insurance industry and its impacts.

“I’ve seen those challenges laid out across our country,” said Alcindor, as she cited her work unearthing systemic issues such as housing insecurity, water contamination, and health care disparities — what she sees as her own opportunity to metaphorically “photograph Till’s casket.”

She shared stories of people from across the country — from Ohio to New Jersey to Baltimore — who are living America’s “hard truths.”

“There are families in Ohio who can’t afford to keep a roof over their heads, and long for the days when their grandfathers could put food on the table for their families,” she said.

Alcindor shared several stories of people who have had an impact on her reporting and life.

Among those were a couple, Tammy and Joseph.

“For years, Tammy and Joseph tried to ignore the cracked ceiling in their living room, the growing mold next to their shower, the deteriorated roofing they fear might one day give out. Joseph worked for decades, installing and repairing air conditioning and heating units.”

Multiple sclerosis forced him to leave his job, and forced his wife to support both her husband and their three children on an annual salary of $9,000.

“Any mom wants to keep their kid safe,” Alcindor quoted Tammy as having said.

In Baltimore, Maryland, Gloria Johnson shared with Alcindor her struggle finding clean water. The mother of two had to buy or boil all her water, so her children wouldn’t have to brush their teeth with brown water — her tap water was tinted and discolored by iron composites in aged lead pipes.

And in New Jersey, Alcindor told the story of Jamal Brown and how his chronic substance abuse issues forced him to be rushed to the hospital as many as 30 times in eight months.

“His face drooped. His arms and legs often went up. He was overcome with anxiety of being a homeless drug addict trying to get clean in Camden, New Jersey.”

After his third stroke, he was introduced to housing by health care providers — a one-bedroom apartment 10 miles from where his father had first introduced him to crack cocaine, and in the six years since she wrote the story, she said, he hasn’t returned to the emergency room.

Alcindor said that while these stories may seem “disparate,” they are also a portrait of America’s struggle that she paints with her pen — as if she were the photographer of Till’s casket in 2025.

“As a political reporter, I can report that across political lines, there’s a shared goal in wanting the best for families … I am reminded of these stories I did over the past year in all sorts of states — battleground states, where people told me they just wanted a better shot at surviving,” she said.

Amid these stories she also gave anecdotes into her own, such as her childhood experience of the third Monday of January, MLK Day, which for her was a day to stay home and study rather than a holiday.

Her mom, a lifelong educator and school social worker been educated at UMass Boston, “would make us sit down in front of the TV to read and understand the speeches of Dr. King,” she said.

Of the many passages in King’s famous “I have a dream” speech, Alcindor believes this one about Americans as heirs to the promises of the American dream is the most underappreciated: “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.”

In her work, Alcindor says she speaks with residents who echo King’s words that America is not living up to its promises, and that more needs to be done for everyday people trying to survive.

Explaining that suffering does not discriminate between political parties, she also cited examples of courage shown in the fires that have ravaged California in past weeks as representative of the American spirit, “bending toward the arc of justice.”

And quoting John Lewis, the late civil rights activist and lawmaker, who in his last words penned in the New York Times wrote, “When you see something that is not right, you must say something. You must do something. Democracy is not a state, it is an act.”

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.