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The Sixties : The Decade Of Cultural Revolution

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The sixties. The decade of cultural revolution. The decade which explored new beginnings when experimenting with drugs, music, and innocence. However, this decade was not just an innocent utopia, as the sixties was also the decade of racism, and violence. As many important events occurred during this era, one of the most dramatic events which took place at the beginning of the sixties, and changed the way society acted against racism, was the death of fourteen year old African-American, Emmett Till, in 1955. Till’s death and trial can be seen to have a remarkable comparison to Tom Robinson, who was falsely accused of rape in Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mocking Bird.
 As the beginning of the sixties was the start of new beginnings and the baby boom, it was also the start of a fight for equality as the death of young Emmett Till made many rethink the idea of racism. In 1955, Till, along with a group of other teenagers, entered Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market, in Mississippi, after a long hot day of picking cotton. What actually happened inside the market will never be known, however, the other’s that he was with reported that Till flirted with Carolyn Bryant, one of the owners of the market who was working behind the counter at the time, and touched her. Four days after the incident, Till was kidnapped by Carolyn’s husband, brutally beaten, shot in the head, tied up with barbed wire, then thrown into the river. His mutilated body was found three days later and was seen by

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