The Murder of Emmett Till:

     Emmett Louis Till was an African American boy who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955. Till had his life stolen from him at the young age of 14, after being accused of offending a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, in her family-owned grocery store. The events that led to the death of Emmett Till were carried out by none other than Carolyn's husband and brother in law: Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. After hearing of what Emmett had allegedly done, Roy Bryant and J.W Milam committed heinous crimes against the child. 

    The two abducted Till from his Uncle's house, where he was staying. They dragged him from his bed and beat him to the point in which he was disfigured. The two then shot Till and tossed him into the Tallahatchie River, with barbed wire wrapped around his neck and a cotton-gin fan to weigh him down. 

    Members of Citizens' Councils, who reinforced the Jim Crow laws, celebrated the acquittal, and further threatened anyone that had testified against Bryant and local members of the NAACP. Instead of folding to the intimidation that they received, Till's family and civil rights organizations used this to oppose racial injustice and terrorism. 

    After the trial, a boycott was mandated on Bryant's Grocery. Shortly after it was forced to close down and the Bryants packed their bags and moved to Texas. Mamie Till Mobley, Emmett Till's mother, insisted that his funeral service have an open-casket. 50,000 people to attend his open-casket after being horrified by Till's edition in the Jet Magazine. The paper told of Emmett's story and showed a photo of Emmett and his mother when he was younger and alongside that one was another photo of Till's mutilated and disfigured corpse. This disgusted the nation and became a key component in the uprising civil right movement.

     The murder of Till was evidence of the codes of violence placed on African Americans for breaking white supremacy rules in the South. Black men found themselves under constant threat of being a victim to violence for sexual advances on white women. 

    Till's story was also referenced by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in several of his powerful speeches. He spoke of the "the evil of racial injustice", as well as "the crying voice of a little Emmett C. Till, screaming from the rushing waters in Mississippi." It is also important to note that Dr. King's all-known "I Have A Dream" speech was given on the 8th anniversary of Emmett Till's murder at the March on Washington.

    Years later, in a 2008 trial testimony interview with Carolyn Bryant, the truth finally came out. At the age of 82, Bryant confessed to professor Timothy B. Tyson from Duke University that she had lied about the entire situation. Back in 1955, Bryant had made the claim that Till had grabbed her hand and her waist and stated that he had been with "white women before." However, Bryant admitted in the interview "that part's not true." At the time of this confession, Bryant was 82 years old. It can be said that she quite literally got away with murder.