The death of Emmett Till

Emmett Till was in the news recently due to the events at Burr Oak Cemetery near Chicago, where Till is buried. I thought I thought I would provide a recap of who Emmett Till was, and the role his murder had in the civil rights struggle

The details of the story are too long to go into here, but Till, a 14 year old black male from Chicago, was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman while spending the summer there with his uncle. His body was dumped din the Tallahatchie River, and was found several days later. The killers were acquitted in a 67 minute trial, and admitted to Look Magazine after their acquittal that they had in fact committed the murder. The outrage generated by Till's murder and the acquittal of the defendants was a major spur to the growing civil rights movement.


Wikipedia has an excellent article on the case.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emmett_Till

This is the Look article based on the confessions of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, who were acquitted of Till's murder.

http://www.emmetttillmurder.com/Look%201956.htm

Bob Dylan wrote and performed the great song "The Death of Emmett Till.This video contains lots of photos about the case, and a couple (of Till's body) are pretty gruesome.