The Emmett Till Murder
Emmett Till Funeral Picture
Poor Emmett Till. A lot of people are familiar with this case, and the reactions that came from it. For those of you not familiar, I decided to do a post about it.
It is a terrible tragedy, but hopefully in the end, some good came out of the whole incident. Although this is not strictly blues related, it a part of the culture that surrounding the blues at the time, and living as a black man in the deep south.
Read the post to discover more about what happened to this poor young man, and all of the reactions that came out of this violent and horrific act.
It all started in the summer of 1955, when Mamie Till Mobley decided to send her 14 year old son, Emmett, to live in Money Mississippi, in the heart of the Delta. This was the area she had grown up in. She thought it would do him some good to get out of Chicago, and go stay with his great uncle, Mose Wright, who was a cotton sharecropper.
Emmett may have been street-wise to the Chicago scene, but he was ignorant to the Jim Crow way of life in the Delta. He had no idea that things were so different than in Chicago, and would soon find out the hard way.
Bryant's Store
On August 24, 1955, while hanging out with his cousins, young Emmett, was caught in a dare. He had told the other youngsters a white teenager in a picture he carried was his girlfriend back in Chicago. They dared him to go into a small grocery store in Money owned by the Bryant family and say hello to the white woman working there. Emmett went in, bought some gum with a couple of pennies, and then said, “Bye, Baby” to Caroyln Bryant, the store owner’s wife.
This juvenile prank led to a nightmare come to life. Three days later, in the dead of the night, two men, Roy Bryant and his brother-in-law, J.W. Milam, invaded the home of Mose Wright, dragged Emmett from the house while holding off the Wright family at gunpoint. Over the next few hours, these two sons of the South behaved worse than animals–actually, just like barbaric savages: they flogged Emmett, drove him to a place near the Tallahatchie River, forced him to strip naked, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then tied his mutilated dead body to a cotton gin fan stone with barbed wire and disposed of his body in the water. Three days later on August 31, Emmett’s body was found floating near the bank of the river.
Emmett Till Grave
When Emmett’s body was sent home to Chicago for burial, his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, bravely met the train at the Illinois Central Railroad Station and demanded the casket be opened. She confirmed the identification made in Mississippi of the murdered child, namely recognizing an initial ring on the finger of the mutilated body. Enraging the racists in the South, especially the bloodthirsty supporters of the Jim Crow lynch justice dispensed in Money and the surrounding counties, Mrs. Till insisted her son be waked in public with an open casket. Jet Magazine, a national African-American, made sure all of America was able to see the results of Jim Crow justice by printing photographs of Emmett in his casket.
The shame and attention brought upon Mississippi forced the authorities there to indict Bryant and Milam, but they were acquitted in a kangaroo court two weeks later consisting of an all-white jury despite Mose Wright identifying both as the men who kidnapped Emmett from his home in the middle of the night. Sometime later, they told their story to William Bradford Huie, a major magazine journalist and author, in exchange for money since they could not be prosecuted a second time due to double jeopardy.
The US Department of Justice re-opened the Emmett Till murder investigation as recent information indicates more people may have been involved than Milam and Bryant. Recent research indicates some of these additional people may still be alive.
Details can be found at the US Department of Justice web site:http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2004/May/04_crt_311.htm
For more information, learn all about the Who’s Who in the Emmett Till Case.
Excerpts taken from Blue Jean’s Place.
havee muercy on there soul.. thats jus thee most ssd thinqq and most messted up thinqq that i could ever imagein doin to a 14 yr. oldd boy at that anybody.that boy didnt mean harm to NOBODY. white people really thinkk they rule well they dont and nether do blacks we are all equals and we all havee the same rights. He was only 14, are you serious nobody deserve to be killed like that and that is so sad for a mother to qo through that. seeinq her son be put in a casket at thee agq of 14.. im a younq black 14yr. old qirl my self and that is thee most hateful thinq that anyone can imaqin doin to a younq teen,. i qive all my love to the famliy of Emmet Till and famliy love you all<333 "xoxo"
were equal.
yes. we are
I am 12 years old my name is Deziree and i disagree with what i believe is the 4 paragraph. Mamie Till Bradley did not just send Emmett down to The South. And the intentions were not for Emmett to live there. Mamie Till Bradley, Her Boyfriend, Her Mother, and Emmett were gonna head up north. But After attending a funeral in Chicago he visited Wheeler Parker[cousin of Emmett]
and Emmet Till asking if they wanted to go back down to Mississippi with him for a little bit. After about 3 days of thinking they decided to let him go as well with Mose Wright word that the boys will be supervised the whole time that they would be down there.
And another thing Wrong with that Paragraph. She warned him to plead his manners and to bow his head when seeing a white person. She overextended the stress of Mississippi hopping to not to scare but to try to leave a message to Emmett on “How it really was done down south.”
6th Paragraph also misleading. When Emmett Till went into the store he asked for some candy got his money out and waited while Carolyn Bryant went to get the gum. She came back gave him the
gum and put her hand out for the money he owed her. Once he gave her the money he grabbed her wrist and said “How about a date Baby?” She felt violated and ran towards the Back of the store. But Emmett Caught up and put his hands around her waist and said “No need to be scared baby, Ive been with white woman before.” She tried to remove herself from his grasp but couldn’t then Emmett said “Cant You Take This Babe” Then one of his cousins came running in and grabbed Emmett and left.
P.S Paragraph 7 lacked to say that after taking young Emmett the dropped of Carolyn Bryant and picked up two other black men. The Drove them to Leslie Milams field. Were Emmett Was Strapped Down and beaten for several hours. Then Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam had the two Black men roll Emmett in a blanket ant put him in the trunk of J.W. Milams Truck. Then The two men were ordered to clean up the blood. Roy and J.W. drove down to the Tallahachi river in miss. Roy stayed in the Car and J.W got Emmett out of the Trunk then made Emmett strip and asked “Are you still as good as i am” When Emmett answerd yes showing no remorse he was shot then. And yes then he was tied to a cotten fan and dumped into the Tallahachi River.
One Last thing Emmett Was identified By His Fathers Ring, By Mose Wright