What Is Emmett Till Essay

866 Words2 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.

Emmett Till was born on July 25, 1941 in Chicago Illinois. He went to an all black school, but was taught to treat everyone equally (Death of Emmett Till). Chicago wasn’t as racist as the South, so Emmett was taught to respect everyone at an early age. Till wasn’t close to his father because his mother left Till’s father when he was very young (Vox). Emmett Till never got to know his father because his father was killed because of rape (Vox). He had a rough childhood, and to make things worse, he contracted polio at age six. As he grew older, he outgrew polio and his mother remarried and then left her husband again (Vox). Her ex-husband would threaten Emmett’s mother, and Emmett would have to stand up to her ex-husband (Vox).

In Chicago, Emmett learned that judging people was wrong, and he was never racist because he never experienced the level of racism like in the south (PBS). Emmett Till would visit his uncle in Mississippi, and while he was there his mother warned him to watch his actions (Vox). In the 1950s, the south was extremely racist towards African-Americans, and everything in the south was segregated including schools, bathrooms, buses, and restaurants. This happened during the Civil Rights Movement which were movements to help African-Americans earn their rights and equality (Scholastic). Whites in the so...

... middle of paper ...

...t and not anatagonize it.
Emmett Till’s death inspired people to try to end racism so African-Americans could be granted their rights and protection. Racism, discrimination, and prejudice had been going on for too long, and it was time to stop it. This inspired many people to hold bus boycotts and protests (PBS). A new era was beginning where racism was considered unjust and hurtful, and people would have to face consequences for their actions. Emmett Till was the beginning of this change. He should be considered a hero because without him who knows what our country would be like. He helped African-Americans to be seen as equal, and not an inferior race. His death was a tragedy, but something good came out of it which was freedom. “ I look to a day when people will not be judge by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character” (BrainyQuote).

Show More
Related

  • The Case of Emmett Louis Till

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emmett Till, who was born on July 25, 1941, was 14 years old when he was lynched in Mississippi after allegedly flirting with a white woman. He had traveled from his hometown of Chicago to visit his relatives in the South when two white men arrived at his family’s home and dragged him out at gunpoint.

    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

  • Emmett Didn't Know the Rules

    1038 Words  | 3 Pages

    Emmett Till was born on July 25, 1941; he was from Chicago, Illinois. Emmett had been an adventurous child, and hadn't know much about his father. His father, Louis Till, had died in 1945 in Italy. No one had known why Louis Till had died. When Emmett was 6 years old, he had been diagnosed with polio. Polio, short for Poliomyelitis, is a viral disease that can affect nerves and can lead to partial or full paralysis. He did recover but he ended up getting a stutter from it. Emmett had a hard time trying to overcome his stutter.

    Read More

  • Emmett Till Thesis

    843 Words  | 2 Pages

    Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy visiting Money,Mississippi from Chicago, Illinois in 1955. He whistled, flirted, and touched a white woman who was working at a store where Emmett Till was purchasing bubble gum. A day later Till was abducted at gunpoint from his great uncle’s house. 3 days after that Till’s body was found, unrecognizable other than a ring he had on. He was unprepared for the intense segregation of Mississippi.The death of this young boy then sparked a movement to end the inequality of African Americans in the United States.

    Read More

  • Emmett Till

    1373 Words  | 3 Pages

    Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was born on July 25, 1941 and was a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago who was brutally murdered in Money, Miss., a small town in the state's delta region. His murder has been cited as one of the key events that energized the nascent Civil Rights Movement. The primary suspects in the case of his death were acquitted, but they later admitted to committing the crime. Till's mother, Mamie, insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket to let everyone see the manner in which he had been brutally killed. He had been shot, beaten and had his eye gouged out before he was then thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a 75-pound cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire to weigh him down. His body stayed in the river for three days until it was discovered and retrieved by two fishers. Till's body rests in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. The murder case was officially reopened in May of 2004, and as a part of the investigation, the body was exhumed so an autopsy could be performed. The body was reburied by the family in the same location later in that week. Till was the son of Mamie and Louis Till. Emmett's mother was born to John and Alma Carthan in the small town of Webb, Miss. When she was 2 years old, her family moved to Illinois. Mamie raised Till on her own mostly, as she and Louis separated when Till was only a year old. Louis was drafted into the U.S. Army in 1943. While serving in Italy, he was convicted of raping two women and killing a third. The Army executed him by hanging in July of 1945. Prior to Till's death; the family knew none of the details of Louis' hanging. They only knew that Louis had been killed due to "willful misco...

    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

  • Research Paper On Martin Luther King Jr

    776 Words  | 2 Pages

    He was standing on the balcony of a motel in Memphis Which is where he had made a trip to help a sanitation laborers' strike. In the wake of his passing, a rush of mobs cleared significant urban areas the nation over, while President Johnson announced a national day of grieving. James Earl Ray, a got away convict and known bigot, conceded to the murder and was condemned to 99 years in jail.

    Read More

  • The Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    2179 Words  | 5 Pages

    African Americans were among the worst treated races in the US; however, this did not stop them from fighting for the rights that so many had died for. It seemed as if black people would never be treated respectfully, but just like in comic books, there is always a hero that will fight for his people. This hero soon came to the scene and he was fierce enough to change the lives of many people. Most importantly, he broke the color barrier and created a path that would allow others to follow. However, something that was inevitable was the threats and racial remarks they had to face.

    Read More

  • The Life and Legacy of Malcolm X

    522 Words  | 2 Pages

    Malcolm X should be everyone’s hero, someone people like myself should look up to as a human being. Anyone who thinks otherwise is either a racist or is extremely ignorant. Malcolm X wore his heart on his sleeve and whether right or wrong he was never afraid to say what was on his mind to anyone who cared to listen. I personally believe Malcolm X’s beliefs give me strength to do what's right and carry myself with dignity. I remember, as a kid, my parents had tons of books about Black History books. The first book I read was a Malcolm X biography. I realized Malcolm X was truly a powerful, significant, and essential work for all time.

    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

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

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 dude to the horrific pictures of the young boy that circulated throughout America. It is thought that up to 50,000 people viewed the body of Emmet Till, as it appeared in a number of newspapers and magazines, this greatly increased awareness of racism i...

    Read More

  • Martin Luther King Jr. Speech

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr. was a big impact on the world, he stood up for what he believed in. When Martin was young, he and his family went through a lot of discrimination and threats of violence many times throughout the day. Martin did not like the way he and others were treated, he wanted to make a difference, so he became the leader of the Civil Rights Movement to stop segregation. Martin Luther King Jr. is a hero because he wanted equal rights for everyone.

    Read More

  • Martin Luther King Jr: A Hero, Leader, and Role Model

    325 Words  | 1 Pages

    Martin Luther King Jr. was born in January 15,1929. King was born in Atlanta, Georgia and graduated from Morehouse College in 1948 (Infoplease.com).King Jr. was the son of a pastor and later became a preacher for a Baptist Church in 1954.Martin Luther King Jr had two siblings (History. com). Michael King Sr. wanted to follow in his father-in-law’s footsteps (bio.com).He also became a successful minister of the Ebenezer Baptist Church (bio.com). Martin Luther King was born into a safe and loving environment (bio.com).King married a woman named Alberta in 1926 after an eight year courtship(bio.com).

    Read More

More about What Is Emmett Till Essay

Open Document