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Emmett Louis Till was a 14 year-old African-American boy who was murdered in Mississippi after supposedly flirting with another white woman. He was from Chicago, Illinois visiting his relatives in the Mississippi Delta region when he spoke to a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store. A few nights later, the woman’s husband and his half-brother, arrived at Till's great-uncle's house. They took him and transported him to a barn, then repeatedly beat him and gouged out one of his eyes. After torturing the boy, they shot him through the head and disposed of his body in a river, weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. His body was discovered and retrieved from the river three days later. Till was returned to Chicago and his mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to show the world the brutality of the killing. Tens of thousands attended his funeral or viewed his casket and images of his mutilated body were published in black magazines and newspapers, rallying popular black support and white sympathy across the U.S. Intense scrutiny was brought to bear on the condition of black civil rights in Mississippi, with newspapers around the country critical of the state. Although initially local newspapers and law enforcement officials decried the violence against Till and called for justice, they soon began responding to national criticism by defending Mississippians, which eventually transformed into support for the killers. The trial attracted a vast amount of press attention. Bryant and Milam were released of Till's kidnapping and murder, but months later they admitted to killing him in a magazine interview. Till's murder is noted as one of the leading events that motivated the African-American Civil Rights Movement.
The story of Emmett Till is one that will be remembered for a long time. Upon looking at the picture of Till's brutally broken face makes viewers feel sick to their stomach, and disgusted with mankind as a whole. This story is a very good example of how terrifying life as an African American in the 1950s to 1960s could be, and how brutal it could have been if you made the wrong people angry. The part that always upsets me the most about this story is this: Till’s murders were most definitely guilty, but paid no sentence because there was a jury of their peers consisting of all white people. They brutally took this man’s life, and they only get a slap on a wrist for it? That always gets me worked up, and shows how the system was broken and corrupt in the past. Yes, the story of Emmett Till will never be forgotten, and although it is a very gruesome and grotesque story, it illustrates how difficult life was for African Americans before the Civil Rights Movement. These kinds of moments were very bad, but with every negative comes a positive: this is one of many steps that lit fires in African Americans’ stomachs, and eventually they rose up and fought their way to freedom and independence.
ReplyDelete- Jake Robinson
This picture is first off, is incredibly disturbing, as well as beneficial for people to see. It helps brings to light the injustices of slavery and racial discrimination. I find this post to be very important to the very timeline of African Americans attempt to gain true freedom. So far we have read about how slaves have gained ‘freedom’ however this freedom doesn’t taste the same as a white man’s freedom. African Americans are now given a new battle to face, discrimination and segregation. The fact that Till’s family was brave and courageous enough to have an open casket opened doors for the knowledge of their tragedy to spread. Allowing people to see the brutality in which Till endured acts a lot like Jacob’s and Douglas in their writing about the blunt and dirty truth of their treatment. The number of people at Till’s funeral speaks volumes as to how this affects society and others who were experiencing injustices due to their race. It even nerves me more to hear that those prosecuted for this terrible event were allowed free and later admitted to the crime in an interview, as if almost boasting the incident. To be able to boast about something as terrible and morally disturbing as that allows me to better see the need for action like the American Civil Rights Movement. Great post!
ReplyDeleteBrooke
The first time i ever saw this picture was when i was only twelve years old. To be exposed to such a thing at only the age of twelve was heart breaking and also an eye opener for me. I first hand, in a JET magazine, saw what blacks had to go through. Emmit Till did not deserve this treatment, but in those days, things like this happen. It is horrible that this mans life was taken so brutally for simply admiring a woman ( a white woman). What was even disturbing to me at the time, was that no one had been bought to justice, or no justice was served the way it needed to be (i recall). To think that many more incidents like this happened, just out of racism and segregation deeply saddens me. To know that at one point our own fellow Americans were capable of something so horrible and brutal is terrible
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