The Lynching of Emmett Till

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In the August of 1955, 14 year old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi. Before leaving his home in Chicago for Mississippi, his mother Mamie warned Emmett of Mississippi. Mamie, originally from Mississippi, told Emmett, "The north and the south are two different worlds". On August 24, Till and his cousins, entered Bryant's Groceries to buy candy. The store was being managed by 21 year old Carolyn Bryant. The exact interaction between Till and Bryant are uncertain and widely disputed, as several different accounts were taken. Till, who had a persistent stutter, would whistle before pronouncing a word he struggled with. It is believed that Bryant took this as an advancement by Till. In Bryant's account, Till held her and put his hand on her waist. She stated that Till had asked her for a date. According to Till's cousins, this did NOT happen. In the early morning of August 28, after finding out what happened from a friend, Carolyn's husband, 24 year old Roy Bryant and his half brother L.W. Milam abducted Till from his uncle's home. They took Till to a barn and beat, tortured, and mutilated the young teen to death. Bryant and Milam then stole the fan to a cotton gin, took Till's body to the Tallahatchie River, wrapped barbed wire around his neck and tied him to the fan. One shot Till in the head before submerging his body in the river, using the fan as a weight. Three days later, Emmett Till's body was discovered. Officials in Mississippi wanted to bury Till almost immediately, but his mother demanded his body be returned to Chicago. The funeral directors highly suggested a closed casket funeral due to the extensive trauma and disfigurement of Till's bloated body. But Mamie insisted that the casket be open. She wanted the world to know what had happened to her son. Emmett's open casket was photographed and published on the cover of black based magazines and newspapers. Bryant and Milam were indicted on murder charges. Their trial began in September 1955. Although their guilt was clear, Bryant and Milam were acquitted by the all white, male jury. In an interview with Look magazine in 1956, both men admitted to killing Till. In the years following, both Bryant and Milam suffered financially and socially, being shut out by the public. The life and death of Emmett Till became an early stepping stone for the Civil Rights Movement in the late 1950s and 1960s.