The Murder of Emmett Louis Till

- “In an act of extraordinary bravery, Moses Wright took the stand and identified Bryant and Milam as Till's kidnappers and killers. At the time, it was almost unheard of for blacks to openly accuse whites in court, and by doing so Wright put his own life in grave danger.”

On August 28, 1955, fourteen year old Emmett Till was beaten, tortured and shot. Then with barbed wire wrapped around his neck and tied to a large fan, his body was discarded into the Tallahatchi River. What was young Emmett’s offense that brought on this heinous reaction of two grown white men? When he went into a store to buy some bubble gum he allegedly whistled at a white female store clerk, who happened to be the store owner’s wife. That is the story of the end of Emmett Till’s life. Lynchings, beatings and cross-burning had been happening in the United States for years. But it was not until this young boy suffered an appalling murder in Mississippi that the eyes of a nation were irrevocably opened to the ongoing horrors of racism in

The Emmett Till murder shined a light on the horrors of segregation and racism on the United States. Emmett Till, a young Chicago teenager, was visiting family in Mississippi during the month of August in 1955, but he was entering a state that was far more different than his hometown. Dominated by segregation, Mississippi enforced a strict leash on its African American population. After apparently flirting with a white woman, which was deeply frowned upon at this time in history, young Till was brutally murdered. Emmett Till’s murder became an icon for the Civil Rights Movement, and it helped start the demand of equal rights for all nationalities and races in the United States.

Roy Bryant and John Milam kidnapped and murdered Emmett Till in cold blood because he flirted with Bryant’s spouse 4 days earlier. The case being that Emmett Till was “brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier” (“Aug 28, 1955: The Death of Emmett Till”) isn’t something you would hear much nowadays, but in 1955, it was unfortunately common. Curtis Jones watched Till flirt with Carolyn Bryant, the spouse of Rob Bryant. What started as a prank went terribly wrong. Not to mention that racism went into play, as Till, being a black kid trying to flirt with a white woman in the South, would never go freely.

In the article “Emmett Till” the story of 14- year old, Emmett Till’s unexpected murder is told. Emmett was a young boy from Chicago, who in August 1955 hopped onto a train with his uncle and cousin to visit their family in Money, Mississippi. On his third day in Mississippi, Till visited a local grocery store with a group of teenagers. Inside the store he bought bubblegum and was accused of either whistling at, flirting with, or touching the hand of the store’s clerk, Carolyn Bryant. The store’s clerk was a white woman who was married to the owner of the store, four days later her husband, Roy Bryant and his brother J.W. Milam kidnapped and murdered Emmett Till. A few days later, Till’s mutilated body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River and could only be recognized by his late father’s ring that was on his finger. The case was taken to court and the two men were not charged with any crimes. Till’s body was shipped to his mother in Chicago where she opted to have an open casket, and the story of what had happened brought outrage to the country.

There are several views of the murder of Emmett Till regarding the topic of whether or not he received justice. Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old boy, was murdered purely based on racism, because he was killed for “wolf-whistling” at a white woman in August 1955. He was brutally murdered after being nearly beaten to death and having his eyes gouged out. When Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, two people involved in Till’s manslaughter, were placed on trial for his murder, they were pronounced innocent and did not receive any punishment. After being tortured and savagely killed, no one was held responsible for Emmett Till’s death. Emmett Till did not receive justice after his death.

On September 19, 1955 Emmett’s murder had became an outrage. Because blacks and women were not allowed to serve jury duty, Bryant and Milam were judged in front of an all white male jury. At the end of the case the two white men were found innocent. This really made a lot of chaos. To add to the madness, a couple months later they admitted the crime to Look magazine for four thousand dollars.

The two white men’s justification for killing Emmett Till was a single moment when Emmett located a white woman in a grocery store and began to talk with her in a flirtatious manner. Emmett’s death took place a year after the Brown v. Board Of Education where the Supreme Court’s decision was to outlaw segregation. The true story of Emmett Till influenced me because it informed me of how times of changed from back when segregation was allowed and even after it wasn’t allowed and how violent whites were to blacks. It made my view of the world more aware to myself about how to treat people and others around you. I’ve read stories discussing segregation in the past that have influenced me just as Emmett Till’s story has. A quote interprets a little bit about how I feel and how angry I feel about the death of Emmett Till, “I think the picture in Jet Magazine showing Emmett Till’s mutilation was probably the greatest media product in the last forty or fifty years because that picture stimulated a lot of interest and anger on the part

A theme for the Mississippi Trial 1955 is justice. African Americans wanted justice and equality throughout the book. The trial of Emmett Till represented justice even though Roy and J.W were convicted not guilty because the African American witnesses were able to participate in the trial. This unfair trial will be told throughout history, which will prove the racist acts that were convicted on African Americans. Emmett Till’s mother had an open casket for her son, because she wanted

In the year 1955, white men in the Mississippi Delta lynched a fourteen-year-old from Chicago named Emmett Till. His murder was part of a massive wave of white terrorism in the wake of the 1954 Supreme Court decision that declared public school segregation unconstitutional. Five years later, Black students launched sit-in campaigns that turned the struggle for civil rights into a

     Soon after Moody entered high school, Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago, was killed for whistling at a white woman. After hearing about the murder, Moody realized she really did not know much about what was going on around her. ?Before Emmett Till?s murder, I had known the fear of hunger hell and the Devil but now there was a new fear known to me ? the fear of being killed just because I was black.? Moody?s response to this was asking her high school teacher, Mrs. Rice, about Emmett?s murder and the NAACP.

In the 1950s, african-americans had a difficult time trying to overcome the power of whites, who deeply despised them simply because of their skin color. Emmett Till was a victim of a hate “crime” against blacks in the 50s. He was born on July 25th, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois. He was an extraordinary person and everyone loved him. He was put in unfortunate predicaments, that later claimed his life.

Emmett Till is a 14 year old African American boy who was brutally murdered. Emmett was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi and went into a small store. No one knows what happened in it. His friends dared Emmett to ask out Carolyn Bryant, who was insulted and told her husband. Carolyn said he wolf whistled, but he was taught to whistle before saying hard words. Roy Bryant was furious when he figured this out. Later Emmett was taken by J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant. Emmett was beat, tortured, and tied to a cotton gin before he was thrown into a river. His body was so disfigured that his own uncle couldn't recognize his body. A jury of all white men found J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant not guilty. Emmett, a young black child was savagely killed for

On August 28th, 1955. A young, African American, fourteen year old boy, Emmett Louis “Bobo” Till, was murdered in Money, Mississippi after flirting with a white woman (“Emmett Till”, 2014). Emmett Till’s story brought attention to the racism still prevalent in the south in 1955, even after attempts nationwide to desegregate and become equal. Emmett’s harsh murder and unfair trial brought light into the darkness and inequality that dominated the south during the civil rights movement. Emmett’s life was proof that African American’s were equal to whites and that all people were capable of becoming educated and successful even through difficulties. Emmett’s death had an even greater impact, providing a story and a face to the unfair treatment

The South had many brutal beating and lynchings of African-Americans. One horrific event was Emmett Till. Emmett was a 14 year old African-American boy that was originally from Chicago, Illinois, but he was visiting family in Mississippi. He was in town with his cousins and they went into a drug store to get bubble gum. On their way out, Emmit “flirted” with the woman at the cash register by saying “Bye, baby.” The woman was extremely offended. Her husband was the owner of the store and he was on a business trip, when he returned home the woman told him about what had happened and he was furious. On the night of August 28, 1955, in the middle of the night, the man got the woman’s brother and they went to Emmett’s Great Uncle Mose Wright’s house where Emmett was staying. They forced Emmett into the car and drove him to the Tallahatchie River. The men forced him to carry a 75 pound cotton-gin fan to the river bank. Emmett was forced to remove his clothes and the men beat him nearly to death. They brutally gouged out Emmett’s eye and shot him in the head. The cotton-gin fan was tied to the body and then thrown into the river. The body was found and recovered three days later on August 31, the body looked almost inhuman. The only way the body was identified as Emmett Till, was a ring that had been pasted down through the family that Emmett always worn. Till’s mother Mamie Bradley