Emmett Till: even today the name sends chills up the spine of anyone with a passing familiarity with the case. No one with a pulse would fail to be moved by the tale of a very young man whose life was cut short due a vile hate-motivated crime. Till was bludgeoned and beaten to death, and then tossed into the Tallahatchie River by two racist whites in the Jim Crow South.
The injustice of the killers' acquittal galvanized the nation and precipitated the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott only two months later. The case lay at the nexus of change in the name of civil rights gains and the repudiation of Southern segregation and discrimination. It would be followed by updates to the legal system, but sadly social justice would never be found for Emmett Till, as he remains a martyr to the civil rights movement.
Did you find the information in this explanation helpful? Then by all means check out our other explanations about milestones of the Civil Rights era such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965!
Emmet Till Story
Emmett Louis Till (or "Bobo" as he was known to loved ones) was born on July 25, 1941, in Chicago. He was raised by a single mother, Mamie Till, who hailed from Mississippi. She described Till's childhood as a happy one, despite the stutter he had after having contracted polio. Till's mother further described him as an active child who may someday grow up to be a doctor or lawyer.
On August 20, 1955, his mother sent him to Money, Mississippi, for a two-week visit with relatives. While there, he is reported to have sampled many of the idiosyncratic delights of Southern life at the time: picking cotton, taking a dip in the local swimming hole, noshing delicious watermelon, and setting off fireworks.
However, Till was unfamiliar with the vagaries and dangers of a young African American man in the Jim Crow South. And so it came to pass that a clash between two cultures, one steeped in hatred and complacency and one with an eye to a progressive and equitable future, precipitated the demise of a young man in the prime of his life, touching the nerve of a nation already on tenterhooks.
Fig. 1 Emmett Till funeral mourners
Emmett Till Accuser
It all started with a rumor and an accusation. On the evening of August 24, Till and a few of his relatives drove to Bryant's Grocery and Meat market to pick up some supplies. Working the cash register was Carolyn Bryant (in today's vernacular, a "Karen"), wife of the proprietor, who happened to be out of town. Though it could never be verified, Bryant later claimed on the witness stand that, when left alone with her for a few moments, Till said, "How about a date, baby?", grabbing her hand.
According to Bryant's account, Till then put his arm around her waist and said words to the effect of "You needn't be afraid of me, I've been with white women before," implying that he had previously slept with white women. Till's cousin, Simeon Wright, disputes this account, claiming that they paid and left without incident.
Fig. 2 Emmett Till's parents at funeral
However, all parties agreed as to the veracity of the following: that once outside in the parking lot, Till blew a "wolf whistle" at Bryant, instantly shattering the unspoken rule that no Black man in the old South should make sexual overtures towards a white woman in such a way. They sped away quickly, but the rumors soon caught up with them.
Bryant's husband soon returned from his trip and, having received confirmation from Black and white locals, that a young Chicagoan had inappropriately flirted with his Missus, set about a recruitment plan to hunt down the culprit, thus preserving his masculinity and manhood. Bryant felt that anything less would make him a "coward." His "redneck" brother-in-law, J.W. Milan, was a more than willing participant in the manhunt on August 27.
What else could I do? He thought he was as good as any white man."
- J.W. Milan, murderer of Emmet Till, when asked why he killed the 14-year-old boy
Emmet Till Death
First, the killers managed to ascertain the whereabouts of Till from locals who knew what had happened–it wasn't a big city. Till's relatives, including Simeon Wright, who had been at Bryant's store with Till earlier that week, described the terror of seeing the men show up and take their cousin.
It is believed that the men planned to force Till off of a cliff's edge, but when they couldn't find the cliff, they took him to Milan's farm, where they beat him to death and possibly shot him.
Fig. 3 Emmet Till Art
Afterward, they had to dispose of the body, so they tied a heavy fan to Till's mutilated corpse, drove it down a secluded dirt road, and tossed it over an embankment into the Tallahatchie River. All told, these men drove between 60-100 miles and crossed three counties that night.
Till's corpse was discovered by Robert Hodges, who was out fishing on the river. Till had been so disfigured that Till's mother made his funeral open casket so funeral attendees could see what had been done to her son.
Mississippi State Flag, Pixabay.
Witnesses claim to have seen up to eight men inside and outside the truck at various stops that night. At one point they made a fuel stop at J.W. Milan's brother Leslie's store in Glendora. When confronted with the fact that blood was dripping from the vehicle, the men claimed to have killed a deer.
Emmet Till Trial
News of the case was so widespread that county officials must have been hard-pressed to squeeze a fair trial out of a jury selected there. Due to previous gerrymandering of voting districts and Jim Crow laws that required a literacy test to vote, and as the Voting Rights Act had not yet been enshrined in the American Constitution, the all-male jury skewed definitively white.
Furthermore, the trial and story around it was so media-saturated, and gossip so rife in the county, one would have to have been living under a rock not to have been exposed to the horrific tale of a young man, a figure attracting so much hate, so brutally cut down in cold blood.
The Tallahatchie County sheriff kicked things off before the trial even began by asserting that the body could not have even been that of Till's as it was too decomposed, and the dates didn't match up. The defense was thus established, sowing the seeds of doubt in the jury early on.
Witnesses, however, begged to differ, and were quite certain that Till had been the one found by that riverbank. The first witness, Moses Wright, admitted that a ring presented in court was indeed the self-same one that had been plucked from the hand of the dead Till.
Fig. 4 Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center ETHIC by Glendora Mayor
However, the burden of proof was on prosecutors, and the sheriff's statements had been enough to cast the required shadow of a doubt on the certainty that Bryant and Milan were the killers. After deliberating for little more than an hour ("To make it look good" the men were told by legal counsel), the defendants were acquitted on all charges.
Emmett Till Antilynching Act
The Emmet Till case became a touchstone in the fight for African American rights. The searing images of his funeral, with thousands-strong crowds in Chicago, as well as those of his open casket, were broadcast across Black media outlets. Such images galvanized the community, making Till the powerful symbol of civil rights that he is today.
The Emmett Till Antilynching Act was first introduced by Bobby Rush (D-IL). The bill passed in the House on February 26, 2020. The law indicates the criminality of conspiring to commit the act of lynching as subject to criminal penalties similar to those of other hate crimes.
Fig. 5 President Joe Biden signs the Emmett Till Antilynching Act
Emmet Till - Key Takeaways
- Emmett Till was born on July 25, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois. He had a happy childhood as recounted by his loving single mother, who felt he would grow up to become a doctor or a lawyer.
- Till was sent by his mother for a two-week vacation in Money, Mississippi, where he would stay with relatives.
- Till was accused of making a pass at a local woman, Carolyn Bryant. Her husband and his brother-in-law tracked down Till at his family's home. They kidnapped and murdered him in cold blood, tossing his body into the Tallahatchie River.
- Till's trial was a nationwide sensation, but the killers were acquitted within little more than an hour by an all-white, all-male jury.
- This murder galvanized the civil rights movement and indirectly led to the bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama a scant two months later.
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