“Violence never really deals with the basic evil of the situation. Violence may murder the murderer, but it doesn’t murder murder. Violence may murder the liar, but it doesn’t murder lie; it doesn’t establish truth. Violence may even murder the dishonest man, but it doesn’t murder dishonesty. Violence may go to the point of murdering the hater, but it doesn’t murder hate. It may increase hate. It is always a descending spiral leading nowhere. This is the ultimate weakness of violence: It multiplies evil and violence in the universe. It doesn’t solve any problems.” ― Martin Luther King Jr. (Directly quoted from page 2 of “Quotes About Civil Rights Movement”.) Fourteen year old Emmett Louis Till, was murdered while visiting with relatives …show more content…
After she brought him back to his home town of Chicago, she forced the funeral home to leave his casket open and on display for simply the shock and awe effect. It was successful. Soon enough the media were swarming, more than ten thousand people came to pay homage, and millions saw his body due to its publicity. (Tex) The story of a fourteen year old boy being brutally murdered was shooting across the country thanks to many magazines, such as Reader’s Digest, Jet, and Look, for publishing articles of the story and pictures of his deformed body. The country was dumbfounded, shocked and horrified. The majority of people didn’t think of it as a racial crime anymore, it showed the country how frightful racial violence had become in the south. It opened America’s eyes to the unadulterated hatred, and how spiteful we humans can be. “I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I felt violated. I was not going back.” —Rosa Parks, civil rights activist (Directly quoted from “Selected Quotations: The Impact of the Lynching of Emmett Till”) The Emmett Till case was headlining all over the country, and inspired countless individuals to fight against the Jim Crow system, and helped kickstart the civil rights …show more content…
Because she allowed her son’s body to be put on display, made him a martyr, challenged the court system, and devoted her life to let the world know the tragedy that happened to her son, she changed the United States forever. Emmett Till’s death was a major step in the Civil Rights movement.
Works Cited
inder, Douglas O. "Emmett Till Murder Trial: Selected Testimony." Emmett Till Murder Trial: Selected Testimony. 2012. Web. 27 Apr. 2014.
This site had an in depth overview of the entire process of Emmett Till’s visit to Mississippi, from his encounter with Carolyn Bryant, to the trial of Milam and Bryant. It was good essential when I needed to find a specific detail.
"The Murder of Emmett Till." Early Civil Rights Struggles: Web. 08 May 2014.
Carreras, Iris. "Emmett Till Case: Willie Louis, Key Witness in the 1955 Murder of Teen in Miss., Dies at 76, Report Says." CBSNews. CBS Interactive, Web. 11 May 2014.
Chandler, D.L. "Teen Emmett Till Victim Of Kidnapping, Brutal Murder On This Day In 1955."
News One RSS. Web. 08 May 2014.
Crowe, Chris. "Selected Quotations." The Lynching of Emmett Till. pag. Print.
"The Face of Emmett Till (UPDATED)." The Face of Emmett Till (UPDATED). Web. 10 May
Months before Emmett's death in 1955, two African American activists in Mississippi had been murdered. An NAACP field worker, the Reverend George Lee, was shot and killed at point blank range while driving in his car after trying to vote in Belzoni. A few weeks later in Brookhaven, Lamar Smith was shot and killed in front of the county courthouse -- in broad daylight and before witnesses -- after casting his ballot. Both were active in black voter registration drives. No one was arrested in connection with either murder
In his book, Blood Done Sign My Name, the author Timothy Tyson tells the story of the highly combustible racial atmosphere in the American South before, during, and after the Jim Crow era. Unlike Margaret Mitchell’s account of the glory and grandeur of the Antebellum South, Tyson exposes the reader to the horrific and brutal reality that the black race experienced on a daily basis. Tyson highlights the double standard that existed during this period in history, arguing that the hypocrisy of the “white” southern judicial system allowed the murder of a young black African-American male at the hands of white racists to go unpunished (Tyson 2004, 244).
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.
The two murderers had beaten him nearly to death, “gouged out his eye, shot him in the head,” and then disposed of his body into the river (History.com Staff). Three days later, his body was found, but his “face had been mutilated beyond recognition” and his body was only distinguishable because of a ring he wore on his finger (Biography.com Editors). Two weeks after Emmett’s body was buried, the two men were tried for murder and “an all-white jury acquitted the defendants” (Latson, Jennifer). Thereafter, the two confessed in an interview with Look magazine claiming that they had not intended to kill him. However, the two men had already been tried for Emmett’s murder once, so “public confession did not yield more charges” (Latson, Jennifer). So, in spite of the murderers confessing their outrageous deed, they managed to be declared as innocent and will die with Emmett’s blood on their
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.
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.
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.
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. The boy’s body, terribly battered, with a bullet hole in the head and a cotton-gin fan affixed to the n...
Since the start of racial segregation, African Americans have been treated badly and Emmett Till was one of them. He was one of the victims of racial discrimination and segregation. Segregation limited all African Americans daily life like, eating in a restaurant, drinking from a water fountain, using a public toilet, attending school, riding a bus, and the purchase of a home. Through all of this, Emmett Till and his family were strong and lived on with their lives.
The use of violence during the Civil Rights Movement proved to be ineffective because it furthered social tensions between Whites and Blacks. The people who generated violence were mainly the Black Panthers advocating Black Power. Black Power called for nationality, unity, self-pride, self-defense and the separation from the White race (Blumberg 9). The idea of separation of the White race competed with integration since Black Power wanted “African Americans to establish their own ...
Having a non-violent way to approach civil engagement helps people rise from the dark. In the article, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” by King Jr., he writes, “So the purpose of the direct action is to create a situation so crises-packed that it will inevitably open the door to negotiation”(236). King Jr. suggests that the only way for Americans to see the need to change is through direct actions and that could possibly get them to negotiate. It related to the article, “from Non-Violent Resistance,” by Gandhi because through a non-violent action, people see the value of actually wanting to create justice. He points out, “Non-violence is the supreme dharma is the proof of this power of love. Non-violence is a dormant state”(Gandhi 316). He refers to all people that if someone gives a person pain, the person receiving the pain should not act back in a harsh attitude, but he/she will win if they show love. However, King Jr. also explains one’s right to express verbally. He writes, “If his repressed emotions do not come out in these nonviolent ways, they will come out in ominous expressions of violence. This is not a threat; it is a fact of history”(MLK 242). It is within the first amendment that all people have the right to free speech in any way, and if people express their emotions in an intimidating way, it is not a threat. Approaching all injustices social issues in
Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year old African American boy who was murdered in Money, Mississippi after reportedly flirting with a white woman. Since he was from the north, he did not know that he was not allowed to talk to a white woman in the south. Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting his relatives in Money, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, when he spoke to 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, the married proprietor of a small grocery store there. Several nights later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J. W. Milam went to Till's great uncle’s house. They took the boy away to a barn, where they beat him and gouged out one of his eyes, before shooting him through the head and disposing of his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighting it with a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. Three days later, Till's body was discovered and retrieved from the river. Roy and Milam were acquitted of murder because of the all-white, all-male Mississippi jury. At the same time, Sheriff Strider booked Levi "Too Tight" Collins and Henry Lee Loggins into the Charleston, Mississippi jail to keep them from testifying. Both were black employees of Leslie Milam, J. W.'s brother, in whose shed Till was beaten. Therefore, racial bias effects jurors’ ability to give an impartial trial.
Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, The. Dir. Keith Beauchamp. Till Freedom Come Productions, LLC, 2005. The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till. TH!NKFiLM COMPANY INC. Web. 3 June 2011. .
The civil rights movement in the 1950s-1960s was a struggle for social justice for African Americans to gain equal rights. One activist who became the most recognizable spokesperson and leader in the civil rights movement was Martin Luther King Jr, a christian man dedicated to the ideas of nonviolence and civil disobedience. Although the Civil war had officially abolished slavery, blacks were still treated as less than human for many years after. Martin Luther King Jr has positively impacted the world with his peaceful protest approach to gaining social justice; but with the increase of hate crimes being committed, I believe individuals today need to pick up where King left
King believed that the problem with violence as a means of pursuing freedom is that revolutionaries must often employ means that threaten to subvert it therefore is illegitimate, and as Hanna Arendt states in On Revolution, “Violence has no intrinsic value, and on the human scale of relative values, will always lie beneath the human needs and interests that is serves.” Albert Camus states “Violence can only be an extreme limit which combats another form of violence, as, for example, in the case of insurrection” Both Arendt and Camus agree with King that Violence, although justifiable in extreme cases, can never be legitimate. King sought to legitimize the Civil Rights Movement by exhorting and adhering to a philosophy of non-violence grounded in morals and human ethics.