Why Was Emmett Till Murder

“[Emmett Till's murder was] one of the most brutal and inhuman crimes of the 20th century,” according to Martin Luther King Jr. On August 28, 1955 in Money, Mississippi, a 14 year old boy named Emmett Till from Chicago was beaten and mercilessly murdered by two white men for flirting with a white woman. The death of this unknowing child shocked the nation and was undeniably an important catalyst for the civil rights movement. 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

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