Emmett Till Structural Racism

Structural racism was a social issue that was brought to national attention following the death of Emmett Till. One would think that structural racism would not have much to do with the death of a teenage boy in the early 50’s, yet it does. Structural racism was prominent during that time because historically white people held an advantage over people of color. White people held that power through years of enslavement and passage of laws that made life difficult for black people. The murder of Emmett Till is connected to structural racism because it was had sparked the movement for Civil Rights. Such thing is true because following the acquittal of the men who murdered Till, the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was passed as well as the fight to better the conditions in which black people were living in. The

Following the passage of the 14th amendment, Jim Crow laws were made to set back black people. Such an example would be discriminatory voter registrations like the Grandfather clause. Structural racism is relevant to this because discriminatory voter laws benefited white people to stop black people from voting. It was a tactic that was used to inconvenience black people from achieving change. In accordance to the law, segregation was what kept society from evolving. Emmett Till’s murder was what sparked the Civil Rights movement because it brought national attention to the inhumane way black people were treated. He had been lynched and had his face disfigured because he flirted with a married white woman. In the documentary, Eyes on the Prize: Awakenings 1954-1956, Till’s mother held an open casket