The case of Emmett Till sent tremors through the nation that sparked the conflict between the ideals of the north and the south. It exposed the gross negligence of the justice system of Mississippi toward its African American citizens, and when the nation learned of this tragedy it realized that change was necessary. This change would of course not come easily, dedication, sacrifice, and bravery were all required. The senseless murder of Emmett Till served as motivation for thousands across the nation to demand a change in the nation, Jim Crow laws had to go.
The murder of Emmett Till served as a catalyst for the civil rights movement and inspired people like Rosa Parks to stand up for themselves, because of the nature of the murder, the funeral, and the controversial court case. One particularly shocking element of this event is the nature of the murder. Emmett Till was a fourteen year old boy who was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Till grew up in a thriving, middle class neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side (Biography. com Editors).
His neighborhood was filled with African American owned businesses, and the streets he roamed as a child were lined with successful African American owned insurance companies, pharmacies, beauty salons, and nightclubs (Biography. com Editors). Because of his upbringing Emmett Till was naive toward the blatant racism in Mississippi and much of the South. Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, however had grown up in rural Mississippi and knew first hand the dangers of being black in Mississippi. This caused great fear for Mamie Till Mobley when her son begged her to let him go with his great uncle, Mose Wright, back to Mississippi for two weeks.
She was very wary of the whole situation but she allowed it after warning her son of the dangers of Southern culture. Much of the south was still incredibly hostile toward blacks. They were viewed as being lower life forms, a stark contrast to the atmosphere of Chicago. Before Emmett Till left she made sure that he gave her a hug before he left because she was afraid she might never see him again. Tragically she had to face every mother’s worst fear when she heard Emmett had gone missing only eight days later.
It all began when Emmett joined a group of young black kids around his age and bragged that his girlfriend back in Chicago was white (“The Death of Emmett Till. “). After hearing this some of the boys from the group dared Till to ask the white cashier out on a date (“The … Till. “). Since Till was young and had not experienced Southern culture he did not even consider backing down from the dare. He walked right on into that store, bought two cents in bubble gum, and on the way out he was heard saying, “Bye, baby” to the woman (“The … Till. “). What exactly was said is only known by Carolyn Bryant, the cashier, and Emmett Till.
Bryant claimed that Emmett grabbed her, said perverted obscenities, and wolf-whistled at her as he strolled out of the store (“The … Till. “). Just recently however Mrs. Bryant admitted to fabricating much of the story, the admission came 62 years too late (Perez-Pena). Till and the group of friends immediately fled the scene after Bryant went to her car to grab a gun (“The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till”). They heard nothing of the incident until four days later when two men, Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, and his half brother J. W. Milam, came rapping at Mose Wright’s door, with a flashlight and a drawn gun (The Untold …
Till). They forced themselves into the cabin and kidnapped Till despite Wright’s pleas to let him off with a warning (The Untold … Till). Before leaving the property Milam told Wright that if he ever mentioned that they took Till, he would not live to see another day (Getting Away with Murder: The True Story of the Emmett Till Case). After brutally beating Till in Milam’s barn, the two men then took Emmett to the Tallahatchie River where they forced him to carry a 75 pound cotton gin fan the river bank and strip down (“The … Till”).
Once naked Milam asked Emmett Till “You still as good as I am? to which Emmett replied “Yeah. “, he then asked Till “You still ‘had’ white women? ” which Till still answered with “Yeah. “, it would be the last word he ever spoke (Huie). This infuriated Milam and in his rage he pulled his . 45 pistol unloading a single round into Till’s head, landing right behind his right ear as he turned to dodge the bullet (Huie). Bryant and Milam then tied barbed wire around Emmett Till’s neck and attached him to the cotton gin fan, so that when they threw his battered body into the Tallahatchie so he would stay on the bottom (Huie).
Three days later his body is found by a fisherman checking his trot line, and another catalyst was added to the civil rights movement. The animalistic beating of a 14 year old black boy in Mississippi is not something that is out of place in the eyes of many Mississippians but when this met the eye of the rest of the nation outrage would come. The body of Emmett Till served as a symbol of the hatred surrounding not only the black communities in the south but all minorities. It proved that Jim Crow laws were far from going away in the South, and that racism was alive and well within Mississippi.
As soon as officials heard of the horrors of Emmett Till’s murder and effort was made to dispose of the body immediately to avoid having it reach the eye of the nation, and cause indignation across the country. A quick burial was arranged without the consent of Mamie Till Mobley, and when she heard of this she demanded it be stopped (“The Untold … Till”). Till was all but in the ground when the funeral in Mississippi was forced to stop. When she saw her son’s corpse for the first time Mamie Till Mobley fainted from shock at the state of the corpse.
Mamie Till Mobley was a very strong woman but the appalling sight was inconceivable. The man in charge of caring for Emmett Till’s body was ordered not to open the casket, but Mamie Till Mobley would not take no for an answer. She told the man that if did not open that casket, she would. She got her way and when asked if she wanted his face touched up so it would not look quite as bad she refused. She said “I want the world to see this because, there is no way| could tell this story and give them the visual picture of what my son looked like,” (Till Mobley, Mamie.
Interview with Keith A. Beauchamp). Emmett’s body was then sent back to Chicago where he would be buried. Despite the great pain it caused her to see her son’s dead body on display, she decided it was necessary to let the rest of the world see the horrors of Emmett’s death, so his death would not be in vain. The body remained open to the public for five days, and tens of thousands of mourners came to see the atrocities con rocities committed by Bryant and Milam. Jet Magazine also published graphic images of Till’s dead body in an issue, which aided in raising awareness of the case.
The combination of the case being publicized and the funeral being public lead to a great focus on the trial when the day finally came to try Milam and Bryant. The court case had to be settled in Mississippi so the jury was entirely made up of white men from Mississippi, something that did not give much hope for the plaintiff. Mississippi juries were only allowed to be made up of white men, and they were the last state to allow women to serve in 1968 (Harrison). This is just one of the many ways Mississippi kept women and minorities under the thumb of the white men.
When the time came, Mose Wright decided to testify against Bryant and Milam, something that was unheard of in Mississippi. He sent a message that he was not going to lie down and let Emmett’s death go without justice. He risked his life so that there was at least a shred of hope for the case. The following night Wright sought a safe place to spend the night because he was feeling restless. That same night, men were seen going to his home in the dead of night and searching the house with flashlights, likely in an effort to find and kill Mose Wright for his involvement in the case (The Untold …
Till). He fled to Chicago the next morning in fear of his life. Once the jury had been dismissed for deliberations Emmett Till’s mother promptly left (The Untold … Till). When asked why she was not going to stay for the verdict she said that she already knew what the verdict was going to be (The Untold … Till). A week after the trial Mose Wright said in an interview that he was not surprised by the verdict, he expected it aswell (The Untold … Till). They had no faith in the Mississippi justice system, and for good reason.
The jury was out for barely an hour when they produced the not guilty verdict (Getting … Case). It seems that the verdict had been chosen prior to the case, and that no amount of damning evidence would have made any difference. This sent a statement to the nation that blacks in Mississippi were not protected by the law. With the whole nation watching Mississippi proved that it did not value the lives of African Americans, and they did not care who knew about it. As far as many Mississippians were concerned African Americans were viewed as being on the same level as animals, perhaps even lower.
The foreman of the jury stated later that they were told not to immediately come back with the verdict so that they would look better (The Untold … Till). Most of the deliberation time was spent drinking beer and pop while socializing (The Untold … Till). The men on the jury treated the whole case as if it were of no significance whatsoever, and many happy faces were seen after the verdict. The local people all cheered on those murderers and celebrated them as heroes. The idea of cold blooded, senseless murder being celebrated publicly is unfathomable in today’s culture but it was all too re in 1955.
The legacy of Emmett Till established the idea that Jim Crow laws must be put to an end, because if America is going to strive to be the land of opportunity and equality it cannot let a significant part of it’s population remain oppressed. Something had to change. It became evident that the minorities of the United States must take it into their own hands because if they did not, no one would. Till was a large part of the turning point in America where we as a nation began to show the morality that should be expected. This turning point is also where we started fully using our democratic system in a way that epresents the views of all Americans, not the privileged.
Emmett Till’s death was one of great sorrow for much of America and will forever be remembered for serving as a martyr for the civil rights movement. Because of the nature of the murder, the funeral, and the controversial court case his death was not in vain, but helped spur much of America to seek justice for not only Emmett Till but all who have been put down by racism and segregation. Emmett Till’s death likely saved the lives of thousands of young black men and women, and this is why we can not forget what happened to him on that fateful night in Mississippi.
