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Emmett Till- Civil Rights and InfluenceEmmett Till- Civil Rights and Influence

 

Emmett Till (1941-1955)

 

African American (pictured right) murdered by racists, aged 14.

The crime’s horrific brutality and the acquittal of his killers helped to start the civil rights movement in America.

 

For more detail see... 

The March on Washington in the History Highlights section.

 

Why was he influential?

Emmett Till- Civil Rights and Influence

 

1. His murder

On August 28, 1955, he was abducted from his great uncle’s home in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white girl, Carolyn Bryant (pictured right), at her family’s grocery store.

His mutilated body was found in a nearby river three days later

His killers were acquitted:

  • Roy Bryant (Carloyn Bryant’s husband).Emmett Till- Civil Rights and Influence
  • J. W. Milam (his half- brother)

(pictured right at their trial, Bryant is on the left) 

The all white jury took just 67 minutes to make the not guilty verdict, despite Mose Wright (a black farmer), testifying that he saw the two men kidnap the boy at gunpoint.

Protected by the ‘you can’t be convicted twice for the same crime’ rule, they admitted their guilt in 1956.

 Emmett Till- Civil Rights and Influence

2. The love of a good mother

Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley (pictured right together):

  • was determined to publicize the injustice to her son
  • told the funeral director not to close the coffin (so that people could see his badly beaten face, pictured right below) Emmett Till- Civil Rights and Influence
  • never stopped fighting to clear her son’s name.

She would have been delighted that the American Justice Department re-opened the case in 2004, having died the year before aged 81.

 

3. Civil rightsEmmett Till- Civil Rights and Influence

50,000 people saw his open coffin before he was buried

His murder had a huge effect on the civil rights campaign, which was

  • triggered off by Rosa Parks' , pictured right below, refusal to give up a bus seat in December 1955 (only months after Emmett's death). Emmett Till- Civil Rights and Influence

 

Key quote on family

“Emmett was very extraordinary” ,Emmett’s mother

 

Key quotes on justice and ethics

The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all, Emmett’s mother.

 

I wasn’t exactly brave and I wasn’t scared. I just wanted to see justice done, Mose Wright (on testifying against the white murderers)

 

If you can't speak out against this kind of thing,

A crime that's so unjust,

Your eyes are filled with deadman's dirt,

Your mind is filled with dust.Emmett Till- Civil Rights and Influence

(from the American folk singer,Bob Dylan's (pictured right) 1962 song, The Death of Emmett Till)

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