In August of 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was murdered while spending the summer with family in Money, Mississippi. Till was beaten and thrown in the Tallahatchie River by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam for reportedly whistling as Bryant’s wife, Carolyn. When his body was recovered, it was so disfigured that the boy could only be identified by his ring (Emmett Till is Murdered).
After being identified, Till’s body was sent back to his mother, Mamie Till, in Chicago. Mamie made the courageous decision to have an open-casket funeral for her son. The funeral was attended by 50,000 people, but the image of Emmett’s face was seen by many more after its publication on the cover of JET magazine (“Emmett Till’s Funeral”).
Two weeks after the funeral, Bryant and Milam went on trial for the murder of Emmett Till and were judged by an all-white jury in a segregated courthouse. Unsurprisingly, the two men were found not guilty, though they later admitted their guilt in a story for Look magazine, for which they were paid (“Emmett Till Murderers”).
Though this lynching took place five to ten years prior to what we widely acknowledge as the Civil Rights Movement, its impact was incredibly significant in shaping the movement.
Emmett Till was born on July 25, 1941 (“Emmett Till”). John Lewis was born on February 21, 1940 (“John Lewis”). Kwame Ture (Stokely Carmichael) was born June 29, 1941 (“Stokely Carmichael”). Diane Nash was born May 15, 1938 (“Diane Nash”). See the pattern? All of these leading figures in the Civil Rights Movement, particularly those involved in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which formed following the sit-ins of 1960, were approximately the same age as Emmett Till. The Emmett Till Generation saw the horror of his murder through the eyes of a peer. Shortly before his death, John Lewis even recounted, “Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor,” speaking to the importance of the strategy in shaping and inspiring his activism (Pilkington).
The murder of Emmett Till was a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, inspiring many of the leaders we revere today who witnessed this atrocity as young people and who spent their youths sparking a movement to improve race relations in this country. The work they began is not done, but we must not forget Emmett Till’s story in this ongoing narrative.
In 2017, on her deathbed, Carolyn Bryant confessed that Emmett never harassed her.
Sources:
“Diane Nash.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 9 July 2020, www.biography.com/activist/diane-nash.
“Emmett Till.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 7 Jan. 2021, www.biography.com/crime-figure/emmett-till.
“Emmett Till Is Murdered.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 Feb. 2010, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/the-death-of-emmett-till.
“Emmett Till Murderers Make Magazine Confession.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 13 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/emmett-till-murderers-make-magazine-confession.
“Emmett Till’s Funeral.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/emmett-tills-funeral/.
“John Lewis.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 12 Jan. 2021, www.biography.com/political-figure/john-lewis.
“Stokely Carmichael.” Biography.com, A&E Networks Television, 20 Aug. 2020, www.biography.com/activist/stokely-carmichael.
Pilkington, Ed. “’Emmett Till Was My George Floyd’: John Lewis Makes Final Rousing Call for Progress in Essay.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 30 July 2020, www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jul/30/john-lewis-essay-final-rousing-call-for-action-progress.
Great post Samantha,
The brutal murder of Emmett Till is a solemn reminder of what racial attacks once looked like in the United States. The horrific nature of this story stands out. However, the murder of young black men was unfortunately more common than many would like to admit. I think this is a great reminder of what racial tensions were like during the time period. It also shows the severity of some Americans actions towards people of color at the time. These injustices can be swept under the rug if we are not careful and look past them. After all, one of the keys of learning the history of these events is that we make sure that it never happens again. Overall, I think this is a great use of a historical event to highlight the racial injustices and atrocities in the time period.
Hello, nice post. I agree with you that the historical event will remind us the pain from the past experience. The death of Emmet would be a great reminder for us. But I found that social injustice still exist in all fields in the USA. Fortunately, the situation has a great improvement compared to the 1960s.
Samantha, your post does a great job of circling back to our modern times. I really liked how you highlighted the fact that all these figures of the Civil Rights Movement grew up togther while whitnessing the murder of Emmett Till. People like John Lewis based their actions on personal and national expereinces. The false claims that caused Till his life bring to mind “To Kill a Mockingbird” and its infamous story of injustice in the American South. Even though the book takes place in the late 1930s, we can get a vivid sense of the intense racial injustices that continued through the following decades. Interestingly, we can also look to the newly published “Go Set a Watchman” (a sequel or first draft of Mockingbird depending on who you ask) as a contrast of white disillusionment versus the black reality. Watchman presents the reality in which Scout now realizes that her childhood perspective of the events of Mockingbird was seen through rose colored glasses. She was a white child who only witnessed injustice from the sidelines. On the other hand, this was not the case for the black characters whose lives depended on a court decision. People like Lewis were children that lived through an opposite reality than that of the fictional character Scout.
Wow, this was incredibly powerful. The biggest take away from your post is probably when you mentioned , “Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor”. History is a scary thing to dive into, but it is also the greatest teaching moments anyone can offer. This really is hard because I feel as if it is all happening again but even worse.
This is an amazing post that does a great job of comparing past struggles to our issues of today. It serves as reminder that there is still much progress to be made. Even though obvious progress has been made since that time, we still have a long way to go. The comparison of Emmett Till to George Floyd displays that these actions inspired people like John Lewis to fight for equality. I hope that others will stand up for what’s right like John Lewis did so the fight for equality will fiercely continue.
This is a very good post about a terrible, yet important moment in history. It is slickening that not only were murderers let free, but the entire thing had a solely racial basis since Carolyn Bryant admitted she was never harassed. I have never made the connection of many civil rights movement leaders being about the same age as Emmett Till. That being said, it was a great insight on your part to show how the likes of John Lewis and Diane Nash would have seen Emmett’s murder as a murder of a peer. Clearly there is still so much change needed in the world. It is sad that John Lewis could make a modern comparison to Emmett Till through George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor.
Hi Sam, I thought this was a really good presentation. I wanted to expand on a part you mentioned where John Lewis said that Emmett Till was his George Floyd. I think the reason behind it was that most times Black deaths were not shown or mentioned in media but for Mamie Till to have his funeral with an open casket was revealing. With the amount of eyes that saw Emmetts body, in real life or through a picture, spread the amount of hate and pain he endured and to imagine how many other Black people died in a similar way was emotional to say the least. This is similar to recent times, I know many Black people have been murdered because of racial injustice but it wasn’t on the news a lot, sadly the deaths aren’t acknowledged. But with the actual murder of George Floyd to be recorded was what made more people aware that injustice to the black community is still happening every single day even if we don’t see it or know it. What sparked the movements were the acknowledgements of the deaths, seeing the pain they had to suffer until their last breath, and to see the people responsible for the horrific acts not be punished.
Hey Samantha! Thank you for the comprehensive summary of this story. It is truly heartbreaking. After reading your post, I am enraged that the 2 men were initially found not guilty by the court and further enraged by the fact that Carolyn Bryant confessed she was not harassed. I appreciate the list of people you provided born around the same time Emmet was born. It is neat to see the connection in the timeline of these people that grew to be activists and lead the Civil Rights Movement. Emmet’s death was a tragedy. I find it inspiring that these activists used this awful event as a catalyst for good.
Great job Samantha! This post does a great job of going deeper into the explanation of what happened to Emmett Till, and the following injustices that surrounded his story. The connection of John Lewis, Kwame Ture, and Diane Nash really helps show how those leaders in the Civil Rights Movement grew up with his murder, and how it fueled their action going forward. You did a great job connecting Emmett Till to what has been happening still to this day, thank you for the post.
This is a great post that is very meaningful and eye opening. What I found to be particularity interesting was the quote you included from John Lewis that reads, “Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland and Breonna Taylor”. The reason I found this so meaningful is because it demonstrates that even though as a nation we have come a long way regarding civil rights since John Lewis’s era, there are still examples of injustice and racism that should not still be prevalent. In addition, it was not until reading this post that I made the connection that Emmett Till had been murdered at about the same time that John Lewis and other civil activists were being born. It makes sense that such a crime would help motivate them to strive for equality.
As it is mentioned in the article, the death of Emmet is a catalyst of the black movement at that time. But I think the black movement is a trend at that time. The social injustice has pushed the development of black movement. It is hoped that the tragedy of Emmet would never occur. Lots of black people have sacrificed their lives for the equality between white people and colored people. I think equality and freedom never comes easily and we need to fight for it. I have found that oppression, ineuqlaity exist in all the society. The reason for that might come alone with the socializing of human beings who like to engage in hierrarchy and the oppression of other people. Until today, the social injustice is still widespread in the United States and many other countries. But the historical event has reminded us that we should never forget the pain and we should always learn from the history to make the world better.