The Murder of Emmett Till

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Recommended: African american women in civil rights

Everyone knows what it’s like to be bullied: put down by others, insulted, hurt. That’s what African Americans had to go through everyday. They had no rights, and they weren't people; they were property in the eyes of many Southerners. African Americans were treated very poorly and were not considered equal; some were treated worse than others. A young, African American, traveled to the South and soon discovered of how his actions would affect not only him, but those around him. Because of Till’s ignorance of the racism in the South, it ultimately resulted in his death which caused a major uproar in the Civil Rights Movement.
Emmett Till was a confident, daring, young boy from the North and not used to severe segregation. According to Linder Douglas, “Milam and Bryant described Till as defiant.” Therefore, when Till went down South to visit relatives, he had no idea what he was getting himself into. When Till was hanging out with other African Americans in the South, he bragged about the white girls he was friends with back in the North. He even claimed one for his girlfriend. The local boys, unable to believe this, dared Emmett Till to go talk to the white, female, clerk inside the store they were near by. Being the arrogant, rebellious boy Till was, he went into the store, bought a few things. As he left, he said "Bye baby" to Carolyn Bryant, the wife of the store owner (Cozzens.n.pag.).
Emmett Till, thinking nothing of it, walked away and forgot the whole incident, but he would soon suffer greatly for stepping out of place. A few days later, two men showed up to Till’s uncle’s cabin. They took Emmett Till by gunpoint and drove off. Three days later, Emmett Till's body was found in the Tallahatchie River. One eye was gouged ou...

... middle of paper ...

...hers. What kind of world did we live in if people just got away with killing people? Everyone looks and acts different, but if we went around killing everyone who was different from us, we’d be extinct.

Works Cited

Cozzens, Lisa. “The Murder of Emmett Till”. Welcome to African American History!
(watson.org), 11 May 1999. Web. 22 Jan. 2014.

O. Linder, Douglas. “The Emmett Till Murder Trial: An Account”. Famous Trials
(law2.umkc.edu) 22 Feb. 2012. Web. 29 Jan. 2014.

Pepus, Chris. “The FBI Report On the Murder of Emmett Till”. Razorcake (razorcake.org),
29 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Jan. 2014

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