CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT

EMMETT TILL

BROWN V. BOARD OF EDUCATION

• 1954: “Separate but equal” was unconstitutional

• Schools are required to desegregate

• Caused tensions in the South to be at an even higher level

MURDER OF EMMETT TILL

• 14 yr. old Emmett went to visit family in Money, Mississippi, August 21st, 1955

• With cousin and friends he went to a local store

• Till whistled at the white woman owner of the store on a dare (Carolyn Bryant)

• News spread that Till had whistled, grabbed, and said various things to the white woman

• When her husband returned from trip and heard, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam went to Till’s uncles and kidnapped him in the middle of the night (Aug. 28)

• Till never returned home

• August 29th a body was found in the Tallahatchie River

• It was so badly beaten and disfigured that it was almost indistinguishable

• His mother identified him by the ring he wore

• The two men, Bryant and Milam were arrested and put on trial for his murder

• Sept. 23rd, the all white jury, made up of 12 males acquitted the two men

• After the trial the men sold their story for $4000 to LOOK magazine telling the true story of what they had done to Emmett Till, and admitted to murdering the young boy, and said they had no remorse for doing it because he deserved it

• The Emmett Till case was a spark for a new generation to commit their lives to social change. They said, 'We’re not gonna die like this. Instead, we're gonna live and transform the South so people won’t have to die like this.' And if anything, if any event of the 1950s inspired young people to be committed to that kind of change, it was the lynching of Emmett Till.