The Death and Trial of Emmett Till

586 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The effect of the death of Emmett. Till

Dictionary.com defines segregation as “to separate or set apart from others or from the main body or group…”. During the time in which Emmett Till lived, segregation was a common concept, and the exorbitant amount of discrimination was exhibited with Emmett Till’s death. Emmett was murdered by two white men, at the age of fourteen, for saying “Bye baby” to one of the men’s wife. A trial was held in the middle of September, 1955. This trial brought many protests and a controversy On August 28, 1955, Emmett went to Mississippi to visit his family and friends. While he was there, he bragged and pretended to have a white girlfriend back home. Since his friends were pranksters, they dared him to say something playfully to Carolyn Bryant, a white woman at a local store. Emmett bought a few candy bars, and when he was walking out, he said, “Bye baby” to the woman. Carolyn’s husband, Roy Brant, found out later on that week, and he and his half-brother killed Emmett a few days later. Emmett was kidnapped in the middle of the night then murdered. “Milam said he and Bryant beat Emmett Till, shot him in the head, wired a 75-pound cotton gin fan to his neck and dumped his body in the Tallachatchie River” (Free 40). Emmett was later found dead in the Tallachatchie River, but his face was so deformed from the beating that the only way he was able to be identified was by a ring he wore in which his father had given him. “Three days later, his corpse was recovered but was so disfigured that Mose Wright could only identify it by an initialed ring” (Death). A trial for the men who killed Emmett was held in the middle of September, 1955. Three weeks after Emmett was murdered, a trial was held for Roy Bryans and Milam. “On September 23, the all-wh... ... middle of paper ... ...f discrimination and segregation. Emmett Till was only fourteen when Roy Bryant and Milam murdered him. The case was held on September 23, 1955. Roy and Milam were set free, and had no charges. This sparked many controversies between the black and whites during that time. Emmet’s story still lives on today, and has had n enormous impact on the world today. Works Cited "The Death of Emmett Till." History. A&E Television Networks, n.d. Web. 18 Feb. 2014. . Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com, 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2014. . Free at Last. Montgomery: The Southern Poverty Law Center, 1992. Print. Metress, Christopher. "No Justice, No Peace': The Figure of Emmett Till in African American Literature." MasterFILE Premier. N.p., 2007. Web. 13 Feb. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • The Case of Emmett Louis Till

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    . Emmett Till's death had a powerful effect on Mississippi civil rights activists. Medgar Evers, then an NAACP field officer in Jackson, Mississippi, urged the NAACP nation...

    Read More

  • The Thin Blue Line Sparknotes

    546 Words  | 2 Pages

    On the night of November 28th 1976, 28-year-old Randall Adams was hitchhiking on a Dallas road when 16-year-old David Harris picked him up. Harris, a runaway from Texas had stolen the car along with his father’s shotgun. They spent the day together and that night went to a drive-in movie The Swinging Chandeliers. Later that same evening officer Robert Wood was shot and killed when he pulled a car matching the exact description as Harris’s over. Two witnesses-including Harris, named Adams as the murderer. Adams received a death penalty sentence that in 1979 that later was reduced to life in prison. It was early in the 1980’s when director Errol Morris happened upon Adams’s court transcripts whilst shooting a different documentary about a Dallas psychiatrist who was frequently consulted in death row cases. Convinced of Adams innocence and the false accusations made against him Morris began making a film on the subject.

    Read More

  • Media Coverage of the Emmitt Till Murder Played a Major Role in the Civil Rights Movement

    1203 Words  | 3 Pages

    On August 28, 1955, fourteen year old Emmett Till was beaten, tortured and shot. Then with barbed wire wrapped around his neck and tied to a large fan, his body was discarded into the Tallahatchi River. What was young Emmett’s offense that brought on this heinous reaction of two grown white men? When he went into a store to buy some bubblegum he allegedly whistled at a white female store clerk, who happened to be the store owner’s wife. That is the story of the end of Emmett Till’s life. Lynchings, beatings and cross-burning had been happening in the United States for years. But it was not until this young boy suffered an appalling murder in Mississippi that the eyes of a nation were irrevocably opened to the ongoing horrors of racism in the South. It sparked the beginning of a flourish of both national and international media coverage of the Civil Rights violations in America.

    Read More

  • Why Was Emmett Till Murder

    823 Words  | 2 Pages

    In contrast to blacks living in the South, Emmett Till was raised in a “thriving, middle-class black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side” (Biography.com Editors). The neighborhood comprised of several black-owned businesses and companies. Unfortunately, he was unaware of the racial discrimination and segregation transpiring in the South when he visited his family in the state of Mississippi. Emmett had attended a segregated school previously, but he was unprepared for “the level of segregation he encountered in Mississippi” (History.com Staff). Chicago and Mississippi are

    Read More

  • Mamie Till Research Paper

    1251 Words  | 3 Pages

    An African American women name Mamie till had her only child murder for just whistling at a white woman. Her only child name Emmett Louis till was born in 1941 in July twenty five in Chicago cook county hospital. Mamie till was married to a men name Louis till. They were only eighteen years old when they got marry. When Emmett till was about one year old when his parents separated. Emmett till never knew his father. His father was a private soldier in the United States army during World War two. Three days later Mamie received a letter saying that Louis till had been executed for “willful misconduct”. Mamie till was given Louis ring with his initial L.T. As a single mother Mamie work for hours for the air force as a clerk. Since Mamie worked more than twelve hours Emmett till will have done the cooking, cleaning, and even the laundry. Emmett till was a funny, responsible, and a high spirited child. Emmett till attend at an all-black school called McCosh. His mother will always tell Emmett till to take care of himself because of his race. One day Emmett till great uncle Moses Wright had come from all the way from Mississippi to visit his family from Chicago. When his great uncle had to go he was planning on taking Emmett tills cousins with him. Later on Emmett till found out that his great uncle...

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment of the Innocent Edward Earl Johnson

    1360 Words  | 3 Pages

    Edward Earl Johnson was put in death row when he was eighteen. A documentary was made when he was twenty-six, called “fourteen days in May.” Edward claimed all along that he was innocent yet he was still executed. The documentary showed he had lived for eight years at the Parchment state penitentiary, Mississippi (death row.) Edward was put to death row for the attempted rape of an elderly white woman and the murder of a white Marshall. The documentary tried to show his innocence, the process of this is what this essay will be about.

    Read More

  • Emmett Till Research Papers

    916 Words  | 2 Pages

    In the early 1900’s racism was a force to be reckoned with, but not knowing the dangers of the south, Emmett Till was unaware of his actions and the consequences. While visiting his uncle in Mississippi Emmett Till was murdered for whistling at a white woman. Not knowing the dangers of the south Emmett acted like his casual, cocky self. Emmett Till’s death is thought to be the spark of the Civil Rights Movement (Crowe). Even though everyone knew who had murdered Emmitt, the men were never put to justice or charged.

    Read More

  • The Emmett Till: His Murder

    1154 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Emmett Till murder shined a light on the horrors of segregation and racism on the United States. Emmett Till, a young Chicago teenager, was visiting family in Mississippi during the month of August in 1955, but he was entering a state that was far more different than his hometown. Dominated by segregation, Mississippi enforced a strict leash on its African American population. After apparently flirting with a white woman, which was deeply frowned upon at this time in history, young Till was brutally murdered. Emmett Till’s murder became an icon for the Civil Rights Movement, and it helped start the demand of equal rights for all nationalities and races in the United States.

    Read More

  • What Is Emmett Till Essay

    866 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emmett Till was fourteen years old when he died, as a result of racism. He was innocent, and faced the consequences of discrimination at a young age. His death was a tragedy, but will he will live on as somebody who helped African-Americans earn their rights. Emmett Till’s death took place in a ruthless era in which his life was taken from him as a result of racism during the Civil Rights Movement.

    Read More

  • The Civil Rights Movement in 1955

    1720 Words  | 4 Pages

    As a result, they were powerless to prevent the white from segregating all aspects of their lives and could not stop racial discrimination in public accommodations, education, and economic opportunities. Following the 1954 Supreme Court’s ruling in Brown vs. Board of Education that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional, it remained a hot issue in 1955. That year, however, it was the murder of the fourteen-year-old Emmett Louis Till that directed the nation’s attention to the racial discrimination in America. Till was an African American schoolboy in Chicago, and he went to visit his uncle in Mississippi. He reportedly “wolf whistled” at a white grocery store attendant, Mrs. Bryant, and was kidnapped by her husband and her husband’s half brother that following night.

    Read More

  • Emmett Till Analysis

    876 Words  | 2 Pages

    The lynching of Emmett Till in the summer of 1955 is one of the most well-known examples of racial violence in the twentieth century. Due to this, the story of Emmett Till has been told numerous times and from numerous perspectives. Although the tragic story of Emmett Till took place in Mississippi, the story would not only receive state attention but national and world-wide attention as well. The kidnapping and killing of a young fifteen-year-old African-American boy by allegedly two white males would not only be the talk of the town but it would be the talk of the nation as well. Stephen J. Whitfield in his book, A Death in the Delta The Story of Emmett Till, digs into and analyzes the deeper ideological roots of the story and case of Emmett

    Read More

  • The Success of The Civil Rights Movement in the 1950's

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Supreme Court ruled, against President Eisenhower’s wishes, in favour of Brown, which set a precedent in education, that schools should no longer be segregated. This was the case which completely overturned the Jim Crow Laws by overturning Plessy vs. Ferguson. Up until 1955, many of the Northern, white Americans were unaware of the extent of the racism in the ‘Southern States’. One instance in 1955 changed that greatly. The death of Emmet Till became a vital incident in the civil rights movement due to the horrific pictures of the young boy that circulated throughout America.... ...

    Read More

  • A Raisin in the Sun: The Duality of African-America, George Murchison and Joseph Asagai

    1367 Words  | 3 Pages

    James, Johson Weldon. Comp. Henry Louis. Gates and Nellie Y. McKay. The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton &, 2004. 832. Print.

    Read More

  • Emmett Till Research Paper

    335 Words  | 1 Pages

    Astonishing information about the very famous Emmett Till case has been revealed. A book lets us know that the events that supposedly happened when Emmett Till “whistled and touched” Carolyn Bryant. She stated that Till talked to her in a suggestive matter, rather than whistling at her and touching her which was the original story. Roy Bryant, physically and brutally beat Emmett Till, and then proceeded to shoot him in the head. His dead body was tied to a cotton gin fan by barbed wire, and dumped into the Tallahatchie River. The two men were accused of murder, and put on trial. But, a white jury acquitted them and they

    Read More

  • Capital Punishment Should be Abolished

    1873 Words  | 4 Pages

    Pilkington, Ed. "The Wrong Carlos: How Texas Sent an Innocent Man to His Death." The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 16 May 2012. Web. 12 Jan. 2014.

    Read More

More about The Death and Trial of Emmett Till

Open Document