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Emmett Till Facts

Emmett Till Facts
Emmett Till was an African-American boy who was lynched in 1955 after allegedly offending a white woman in a store. He was born Emmett Louis Till on July 25th, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois, to Mamie Carthan and Louis Till. When Emmett was an infant his mother discovered his father had been unfaithful and she left him. In 1945 Louis Till was executed for murdering an Italian woman. Emmett contracted polio when he was six and had a permanent stutter as a result. Emmett lived in Chicago on a busy neighbourhood and his mother worked at the US Air Force as a civilian clerk. While visiting his cousin in Mississippi on August 24, 1955, Emmett and some other boys went to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market to buy candy. On August 28, Emmett was lynched as a result of allegations made about the visit to the grocery store that were later found to be untrue.
Interesting Emmett Till Facts:
Emmett Till was murdered early in the morning on August 28, 1955 by two men.
It was alleged that Emmett made comments to a white woman in the grocery store owned by her husband and herself.
The allegations were later found to be untrue. It was said that he whistled at Carolyn Bryant and made physical and verbal advances. She testified to this in court but recanted her testimony many years later when she was in her 70s.
Carolyn Bryant's husband Roy Bryant and his friend John William Milam kidnapped Emmett from his uncle Mose Wright's home between 2am and 3:30am.
The two men took Emmett to Money, Mississippi to a barn. Along the way they pistol whipped Emmett until he was unconscious.
Three days after Emmett was kidnapped his body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River. Evidence showed he had been beaten, hung, shot, and weighed down to sink in the river.
Emmett's mother had an open casket funeral to draw attention to the crimes that were being committed against African Americans.
Several prominent individuals involved in the Civil Rights Movement became involved in the case, including Medgar Evers, and Amzie Moore.
Roy Bryant and John Milam were investigated and indicted for Emmett Till's murder.
Several attorneys offered to defend the accused murderers for free.
The trial was held in Sumner in September 1955. It lasted 5 days and the murderers were acquitted. The jury had been made up of white males only. No women or blacks had been allowed).
There was outrage over the verdict around the world.
In 1956 the two acquitted murderers admitted that they had committed the murder. Because of the double jeopardy law in the US they could not be tried for murder again.
The two murderers were essentially boycotted and their shops went bankrupt.
Several movies have been made and there continues to be investigation into what happened to Emmett Till.
In 2004 the case was reopened to determine whether others had been involved in Emmett's murder.
There is a granite sculpture in Montgomery, Alabama with the names of 40 people who died during the Civil Rights Movement, including Emmett Till.


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