Emmett Till's Death

Emmett Till

The Afroamerican Civil Rights Movement was impulsed by several figures, some of them were activists, some of them were just victims of the segregation and discrimination present in The USA during the first half of the twentieth century.

Emmett Till’s death changed the direction of the movement, it encouraged the already unsettled mass to keep fighting against the violation of their rights, only because of their skin color.

On August 24, 1955, while visiting his relatives in Mississippi, Emmett told his friends that he had a white girlfriend back home, none of them believed it and dared him to flirt with a white girl who was working in a store and he agreed. No one witnessed the event, but Carolyn Bryant claimed that Emmett that he grabbed her, made lewd advances, and then wolf-whistled at her as he sauntered out. (www.history.com)

Carolyn Bryant

When Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, arrived home a few days later, Carolyn told him that a black boy flirted with her in the store. Next he went to Emmett’s uncle house with his brother in law J.W. Milam, and demanded to see the 14-year old-boy, after a struggle, he took Emmett to his car, beat him and then shot him in the head, finally he threw his dead body to the Tallahatchie River.

When his body was found the authorities suggested that it should be buried quickly, instead of it, Emmett’s mother decided to do an open-casket funeral to show what the killers did to her only son.

Less than two weeks later, Milam and Bryant went on trial and found not guilty.

This case helped the movement to go on, it showed how black people didn’t have any right, and how necessary was to stop racial segregation inside a country that claims that every person must bre treated equally.

That being said, how do you think that cases like this encourage people?

How does it connect with the reality of our country?

Sources:
Emmett Till Biography
The Death of Emmett Till