Remembering Emmett Till

One late August evening in 1955, a 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till walked into a small store in Money, Mississippi, to buy some bubble gum.

Emmett was a Black kid from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi. Carolyn Bryant—a 21-year-old White woman who ran the store along with her husband, Roy—was working alone inside.

Emmett was in the store alone with Bryant for about one minute. After he stepped outside, Emmett whistled back at her.

Four days later, Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam, kidnapped Emmett from his cousins’ house in the middle of the night. They drove him to a barn about 30 miles away, where they savagely beat him, shot him in the head, and threw his body into the Tallahatchie River.

A teenager fishing in the river found Emmett’s body three days later. At the murder trial that took place the following month, witnesses clearly identified Bryant and Milam as the perpetrators, but an all-White jury in a deeply segregated South acquitted them. They walked free, though they would soon confess to the killings in a magazine article.

Seventy years later, Emmett Till’s murder remains a watershed moment in U.S. race relations. Coverage of the killing and its aftermath helped galvanize the civil rights movement.

“This murder represents with unusual clarity the brutality of racism in this country,” says Dave Tell, a professor at the University of Kansas who has studied the case extensively. “On the one side, you have an innocent kid lynched for whistling at a White woman. On the other side, you have these confessed murderers who brag about committing the crime and are never held to account.”

One  August evening in 1955, a 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till walked into a small store in Money, Mississippi. He wanted to buy some bubble gum.

Emmett was a Black kid from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi. Carolyn Bryant was working alone inside. She was a 21-year-old White woman who ran the store along with her husband, Roy.

Emmett was in the store alone with Bryant for about one minute. When he went outside, Emmett whistled back at her.

Four days later, Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam, kidnapped Emmett from his cousins’ house in the middle of the night. They drove him to a barn about 30 miles away.  They beat him, shot him in the head, and threw his body into the Tallahatchie River.

Emmett’s body was found three days later by a teenager fishing in the river. A murder trial took place the following month. Witnesses clearly identified Bryant and Milam as responsible, but an all-White jury in a deeply segregated South acquitted them. They walked free.  Soon after the trial, they would confess to the killings in a magazine article.

Seventy years later, Emmett Till’s murder remains a turning point in U.S. race relations. Coverage of the killing and its aftermath strengthened the civil rights movement.

“This murder represents with unusual clarity the brutality of racism in this country,” says Dave Tell, a professor at the University of Kansas who has studied the case extensively. “On the one side, you have an innocent kid lynched for whistling at a White woman. On the other side, you have these confessed murderers who brag about committing the crime and are never held to account.”

Emmett Till’s murder is part of a much larger story about racial violence that goes back to the aftermath of the Civil War (1861-65), when enslaved people in the South tasted freedom.

During the period following the war, known as Reconstruction (1865-77), the federal government granted some rights to African Americans. Congress passed the 14th Amendment, giving Black people citizenship and equal protection under the law, and the 15th Amendment, giving Black men the right to vote. For the first time, Black Southerners cast ballots, sat on juries, and were even elected to Congress—with the help of federal troops sent to the South to enforce the laws.

But many Whites in the region bitterly opposed giving formerly enslaved people equality. So when the federal government withdrew troops from the South in 1877, it unleashed a violent backlash. More than 4,000 Black people were lynched in the South between 1877 and 1950, according to the Equal Justice Initiative (E.J.I.), a racial justice nonprofit in Montgomery, Alabama. Lynchings also happened in the North, though in smaller numbers.

Emmett Till’s murder is part of a much larger story about racial violence that goes back to the aftermath of the Civil War (1861-65), when enslaved people in the South tasted freedom.

The period following the civil war is known as Reconstruction (1865-77). During this time, the federal government granted some rights to African Americans. Congress passed the 14th Amendment, which gave Black people citizenship and equal protection under the law. The 15th Amendment was also passed giving Black men the right to vote. For the first time, Black Southerners voted, sat on juries, and were even elected to Congress. However, federal troops had to be sent to the South to enforce the laws.

In 1877, the federal government withdrew troops from the South. Many Whites in the region still opposed giving formerly enslaved people equality. With the troops gone, a violent backlash broke out. More than 4,000 Black people were lynched in the South between 1877 and 1950, according to the Equal Justice Initiative (E.J.I.), a racial justice nonprofit in Montgomery, Alabama. Lynchings also happened in the North, though in smaller numbers.

Lynching was a means of re-establishing White supremacy—a way to suppress the Black vote and to enforce Jim Crow laws and customs, which segregated White and Black people in public spaces such as schools, restaurants, and restrooms.

“Lynching was used to terrorize and traumatize millions of Black people living in the American South,” says Bryan Stevenson, executive director of E.J.I.

The violence, along with segregation and a lack of economic opportunity, led 6 million Black people, including Emmett Till’s family, to flee the South in what was known as the Great Migration.

Lynching was a means of re-establishing White supremacy. It was a way to suppress the Black vote and to enforce Jim Crow laws and customs, which segregated White and Black people in public spaces such as schools, restaurants, and restrooms.

“Lynching was used to terrorize and traumatize millions of Black people living in the American South,” says Bryan Stevenson, executive director of E.J.I.

Six million Black people, including Emmett Till’s family, left the South because of the violence, segregation, and lack of economic opportunity. This movement became known as the Great Migration.

Emmett had only known life in Chicago when he visited Mississippi in the summer of 1955. On the evening of August 24, after his cousins had picked cotton all day, they all visited the Bryants’ small grocery store.

Inside the store, Emmett violated a Jim Crow taboo of which he was likely unaware, according to his cousin Simeon Wright, then 12, and another friend who watched from outside: Emmett put the money for his gum directly into Carolyn Bryant’s hand, rather than laying it on the counter as White Mississippians expected African Americans to do. Then he left the store.

And that’s when Emmett whistled at Bryant. Simeon said their group became afraid and left.

Four days later, in the middle of the night, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam kidnapped Emmett at gunpoint from the bed he was sharing with Simeon. They drove Emmett 45 minutes away to a barn where they tortured him for hours. Finally, they shot him in the head.

Emmett had only known life in Chicago. When he visited Mississippi in the summer of 1955, he had never lived in the South. On the evening of August 24, after his cousins had picked cotton all day, they all visited the Bryants’ small grocery store.

According to his cousin Simeon Wright, then 12, and another friend who watched from outside, Emmett put the money for his gum directly into Carolyn Bryant’s hand. Emmett was likely unaware he violated a Jim Crow taboo. He didn’t put the money on the counter as White Mississippians expected African Americans to do. Then he left the store.

And that’s when Emmett whistled at Bryant. Simeon said their group became afraid and left.

Four days later, in the middle of the night, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam kidnapped Emmett. He was taken at gunpoint from the bed he was sharing with Simeon. They drove Emmett 45 minutes away to a barn. He was tortured for hours. Finally, they shot him in the head.

The men used barbed wire to tie a 75-pound cotton gin fan to Emmett’s neck and tossed his body into the Tallahatchie River.

“Emmett Till was murdered not because he committed a crime, but because he was perceived as violating the racial order, of crossing a line,” Stevenson says.

After authorities pulled his mutilated corpse out of the water on August 31, Emmett’s family could only identify his remains by the silver ring he was wearing.

But his mother, Mamie Till, chose to lay his body in an open coffin, believing that “the whole nation had to bear witness to this,” as she wrote in her memoir. “They had to see what I had seen.” In Chicago, tens of thousands of mourners lined up over four days of public viewings to witness for themselves the violence unleashed on a 14-year-old boy. Many more saw it when Jet magazine published photographs of his body. Those close-up photos and national news coverage of his funeral turned a local murder into a global symbol of American injustice.

The men used barbed wire to tie a 75-pound cotton gin fan to Emmett’s neck and tossed his body into the Tallahatchie River.

“Emmett Till was murdered not because he committed a crime, but because he was perceived as violating the racial order, of crossing a line,” Stevenson says.

Authorities pulled his body out of the water on August 31. Emmett’s family could only identify his remains by the silver ring he was wearing because his body was so damaged.

But his mother, Mamie Till, chose to lay his body in an open coffin. She believed that “the whole nation had to bear witness to this,” as she wrote in her memoir. “They had to see what I had seen.”  For four days in Chicago, tens of thousands of mourners lined up for the public viewings. They wanted to witness for themselves the violence unleashed on a 14-year-old boy. Many more saw it when Jet magazine published photographs of his body. Those close-up photos and national news coverage of his funeral turned a local murder into a global symbol of American injustice.

Emmett’s murder energized the civil rights movement. About three months after his funeral, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama, later saying that she found herself unable to move because she was thinking about Emmett. The Montgomery bus boycott—which brought Martin Luther King Jr. to prominence—began soon after.

The young people who became the leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), which spearheaded the Freedom Rides and other important civil rights protests in the 1960s, were the same age as Till when the murder happened, and it deeply influenced them.

Historians now believe that a group of White men took part in Emmett’s torture and murder, but the local prosecutor only put Bryant and Milam on trial. Taking enormous personal risk to speak out, Black witnesses clearly identified them as the men who kidnapped Emmett.

But that didn’t matter. Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett had made crude remarks and grabbed her waist in the store. The defense even claimed that Emmett was still alive and in hiding and that the body pulled from the river wasn’t his. After an hour of deliberation, the all-White jury acquitted Bryant and Milam.

Knowing that they couldn’t be tried twice for the same crime (a legal principle known as double jeopardy), Bryant and Milam admitted to having committed the murder in a Look magazine article published the following year, for which they were paid.

Emmett’s murder energized the civil rights movement. About three months after his funeral, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a segregated bus in Alabama. She later said that she found herself unable to move because she was thinking about Emmett. The Montgomery bus boycott—which made Martin Luther King Jr. well known—began soon after.

The young people who became the leaders of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) were the same age as Till when the murder happened. The murder deeply influenced them. The SNCC  spearheaded the Freedom Rides and other important civil rights protests in the 1960s.

Historians now believe that a group of White men took part in Emmett’s torture and murder. The local prosecutor only put Bryant and Milam on trial. Black witnesses, taking enormous personal risk, clearly identified them as the men who kidnapped Emmett.

But that didn’t matter. Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett had made crude remarks and grabbed her waist in the store. The defense even claimed that Emmett was still alive and in hiding. They claimed that the body pulled from the river wasn’t his. After an hour of deliberation, the all-White jury acquitted Bryant and Milam.

Knowing that they couldn’t be tried twice for the same crime (a legal principle known as double jeopardy), Bryant and Milam admitted to having committed the murder in a Look magazine article published the following year. (They were paid for the article.)

Emmett Till’s murder remains one of the most infamous crimes in American history, but Wright Thompson, a journalist who grew up 23 miles from where Emmett was killed, learned nothing about it in school. He says the Mississippi history textbook he studied in high school in the 1990s didn’t mention Emmett Till.

“I didn’t learn a single thing about it until I left home for college,” says Wright, author of The Barn, a new book about the murder. It’s not an accident, he says, that generations of kids in Mississippi didn’t learn this story. As he writes in the book, “This isn’t comfortable history to face.”

Efforts to keep Till from being forgotten are ongoing. The Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, is working to preserve the places associated with the murder and put up historical markers.

Emmett Till’s murder remains one of the most infamous crimes in American history. But Wright Thompson, a journalist who grew up 23 miles from where Emmett was killed, learned nothing about it in school. He says the Mississippi history textbook he studied in high school in the 1990s didn’t mention Emmett Till.

“I didn’t learn a single thing about it until I left home for college,” says Wright, author of The Barn, a new book about the murder. It’s not an accident, he says, that generations of kids in Mississippi didn’t learn this story. As he writes in the book, “This isn’t comfortable history to face.”

Efforts to keep Emmett from being forgotten are ongoing. The Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, is working to preserve the places associated with the murder. They have put up historical markers.

A bulletproof sign now marks the spot where authorities pulled Emmett’s body out of the Tallahatchie River. A previous sign had been shot 317 times in eight years. In response to the ongoing vandalism, the Center helped launch the Emmett Till Memory Project, an app that walks visitors through all the historic sites connected with Emmett’s murder.

“It’s harder to shoot an app,” says Tell, the University of Kansas professor, who’s helped with the project. “We need all hands on deck, doing whatever it takes to keep this story alive.”

A bulletproof sign now marks the spot where authorities pulled Emmett’s body out of the Tallahatchie River. A previous sign had been shot 317 times in eight years. In response to the ongoing vandalism, the Center helped launch the Emmett Till Memory Project. It’s an app that walks visitors through all the historic sites connected with Emmett’s murder.

“It’s harder to shoot an app,” says Tell, the University of Kansas professor, who’s helped with the project. “We need all hands on deck, doing whatever it takes to keep this story alive.”

With reporting by Margalit Fox of The New York Times.

With reporting by Margalit Fox of The New York Times.