 Emmett Till  Till & mother Mamie  Milan and Bryant |
Some History of Emmett TillEmmett Till, a Chicago boy, went down to Money, Mississippi for a summer stay with his family at the home of his great uncle Moses Wright. One day he joined several other teenagers on a visit to Bryant's Grocery. He went inside to buy some bubble gum and reportedly propositioned a white woman (Carolyn Bryant) inside for a date. At some point during this exchange, he issued a "wolf-whistle" at her. A few days later, two men, Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband, and his half brother J. W. Milam, took Emmett from his great uncle's home at around 3 am. He would never again be seen alive by his family. After being beaten for his actions and his continuing attitude of equality, he was shot in the head and rolled into a river with a 75 lb. cotton-ginning fan attached to his neck with barbed wire. The next day Bryant and Milam were arrested for Till's kidnapping. September 6th, the day that Till's body was buried, Milam and Bryant were indicted by a Mississippi grand jury for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. Both men plead not guilty. Two weeks later Jet magazine published graphic photographs of Till's mutilated corpse, appalling readers coast to coast. About 3 weeks after Emmett's death, the kidnapping and murder trial began with an all white, male jury. Just days later the two men were acquitted after the jury deliberated for just over an hour. One hundred days after Till's murder, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a bus in Alabama. Sparking the Alabama bus boycotts and the civil rights movement. Additional Resources |
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