Emmett Till

Slide 1: 

The Case of Emmett Till 1941-1955

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Emmett grew up with his mother, Mamie Till Bradley. His father died in war when he was young. Emmett lived in Chicago and was popular and well-liked by parents and children alike in his neighborhood. He loved baseball and his family, and was always willing to do work to help support his mother. One summer he planned to go on a trip with his mother but when his uncle from Mississippi came up to visit he decided he would rather go down to stay with his uncle and cousins for the summer. Chicago Childhood

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Chicago was a busy city with over 500,000 black residents. Although it was still segregated, it still held a nice life for all races. On the other hand, Mississippi still held its racist values and Jim Crow laws. You were expected to respect the white people no matter what. Emmett, being young and coming from a big city not realizing the seriousness of Jim Crow laws and deep south racism, was warned by his mother to respect the white people. Chicago V. Mississippi

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Emmett arrived with his cousin Curtis Jones to Money, Mississippi on August 20, 1955. He was there to ‘have a good time’. He had a good time with his friends and family and all the southern kids were awed by the northerners’ boldness to the white townspeople. Emmett boasted that he had even had white girlfriends. The kids bet him that he wouldn’t have the nerve to go in and flirt with the popular Mrs. Bryant in the Bryant’s store. He had the nerve. Mississippi

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Nobody knows what Emmett said inside the store but Carolyn Bryant and Emmett. Carolyn stated that he said “how about a date, baby?” and grabbed her around the waste and told her he had been with white women before. When she went to the back Emmett left the store and said “bye, baby.” She said that he than whistled at her and was hustled into the back of a friends pick up truck and drove away. Carolyn’s husband was out of town at the time so she decided she wouldn’t tell him what happened. The incident was the talk of the town and the whites were outraged. When her husband Roy Bryant got back in town and heard about it, he was appalled. He asked to borrow his brother-in-law, J.W. Milam, car, and Milam not only let him borrow the car but also offered his help. Wolf Whistles

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Emmett was found by a teen fishing. His body was so bloated that all they could tell was that it was an African-American body. It was soon found out that it was Emmett’s body. The two men were put in jail on assumption for murder. The trial jury was all white. They were all mad that the press was making all of Mississippi look like redneck racists, and that’s why they stood up for the Roy Bryant and Milam. The jury deliberated for five minutes and than drank coke for an hour and eight minutes before stating the verdict of the two murderers… NOT GUILTY because there was no evidence proving that someone saw the two men kill Emmett. People from all over the country were outraged at the outcome. People had sent hate mail to a sheriff and when the sheriff walked out he said “those people better not come down here or the same thing will happen to them as it did to Emmett”. Trial

Hardly Recognizable… : 

Hardly Recognizable…

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Although Bryant and Milam were supported by Mississippi during the trial, they were afterward shunned by the community. The store that they owned went bankrupt. For money they went to a magazine and sold the story from their point of view. They admitted that they hadn’t at first intended on killing Emmett but after his boldness and courage of saying he didn’t take back what he did and didn’t think himself lesser than a white person, they killed him to teach people a lesson. Aftermath

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Emmett Till’s death sparked the beginning of the civil right’s movement. Brinkley states that Rosa Parks, tired of being badly treated and thinking about Emmett’s ordeal wouldn’t give her seat away on the bus. That sparked Martin Luther King Jr. coming about as a big speaker for the civil rights movement and the changing of laws around the country for the equality of all races. Legacy