Emmett Louis Till

Decent Essays
Emmett Louis Till, an African American teenager born in Chicago, was brutally murdered in the early hours of August 28, 1955 in Mississippi when he was only 14 years old. His case has served as a reference for the Civil Rights Movement.

Emmett was born in Chicago on July 25, 1941, the city where he lived with his mother Mamie Carthan (1921-2003). In the summer of 1955, they received the visit of their uncle Moses Wright, who told him stories about life in the Mississippi delta that aroused great curiosity in the region and a great desire to visit Emmett.

I wish it materialized when his mother, after having refused outright at first, finally allowed him to return with his uncle after the visit, but not before warning him about the huge differences
…show more content…
Three days later, on August 24, Emmett went with his cousin and other teenagers to one of the three stores that Money had, Roy Bryant's store and his wife Carolyn, and was accused of insinuating to the latter, a white woman who was then 21 years old. Carolyn threatened them with a gun and the teenagers left. It is believed that after the incident Emmet had expressed his desire to return to Chicago but did not mention it to his uncle because he was afraid that he would get angry.

Roy Bryant was on a trip at the time but on his return, on August 27, his wife had already taken care to make the anecdote spread throughout the town.

When he found out about the incident he interrogated several African-American men in the store and even kidnapped a man he believed guilty, before knowing the identity of Emmett Till. That same night, at dawn, Roy Bryant, 24 years old, went to Moses Wright's house accompanied by his stepbrother John William Millam, 36 years of age, and another man of unknown identity in search of a child of 14 years old called Emmett Till.

Both men took to Emmett to a barn located in a near population and there provided a brutal beating to him then to shoot him in the head and to throw him to the Tallahatchie river.

Related Documents

  • Decent Essays

    Velez 1 Manuela Velez Heather Marshall English 2 December 7, 2015 Annotated Bibliography Brooks, Gwendolyn Elizabeth. “The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till.” All Poetry. All Poetry, n/d. Web.…

    • 1573 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Emmett Till Essay

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Emmett grew up in Chicago where racism was not as profound as it was in the deep Southern towns. Till was a cocky boy in his few teenage years. He was known to be the centre of attention and could always make people smile, even in the most solemn situations. He had gone to Mississippi to meet with relatives in the small town of Money. Here, Emmett whistled at a white girl as he was purchasing bubble-gum from the Money convenience store (Bryant’s Grocery Store).…

    • 671 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Emmett Till Murder

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Chris Crowe described in detail how Emmett looked after he was found. “One side of the victim’s forehead was crusted, an eye had been gouged out, and the skull has a bullet hole just above the right ear” (Crowe 64). This shows us that the Jim Crow Law is taken very seriously in Mississippi and if you break the law you better be worried. As you can see, Chris Crowe is very passionate about what he writes about and gives good details. He describes in depth how his mother was worried about Emmett going to Mississippi to visit family, how Emmett approaches the cashier, and how he was murdered.…

    • 782 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Why Is Emmett Till Wrong

    • 229 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American boy who was brutally beaten and murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Emmett was a lively teenager who grew up in an area without much racism or hate (3). Emmett lived in Chicago, Illinois in a flourishing black neighborhood. When he was very young, he was inflicted with polio, which gave him a slight speech impediment. His mother taught him to whistle when he was struggling with his stutter.…

    • 229 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The evening of August 24th, 1955 in Money, Mississippi a black boy was villainized for an action similar to what a white boy would do. Emmett Till, born July 25th 1941, traveled to Mississippi from Chicago to spend two weeks with his family. That night he was hanging out with a few of his cousins outside of Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market. A few of the boys and Emmett went inside of the store and the boys made a purchase Emmett was left inside of the store alone with the cashier, Carolyn Bryant. No one heard or was present to remember what happened within that time, but Carolyn went on the say that Emmett unwelcomingly flirted with her.…

    • 597 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    It has been roughly sixty years since the callous manslaughter of Emmet Till took place, but yet gratuitous murders of young minorities have not ceased to exist. It is alarming to me that racial struggle in America has not perished, but then again this nation was taken by the white man and created for the white man’s disposal. We as minorities were never meant to rejoice in freedom or take part in the pursuit of happiness because of the blatant fact that we were meant to be someone’s property. Emmet Hill like any other sensible person wasn’t fond of this philosophy. He believed that he was equally obligated to the same rights as any other American citizen.…

    • 550 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    on August 24, 1955 a African American boy by the name of Emmett Till was brutally murdered by two White men for whistling at a White woman going out the store. On August 28 Till body was found floating in the Tallahatchie River. Till body was brutally beaten and a gunshot wound to the head. Photographs of Till body appeared in newspaper all across the world. On September 23 less than a month after till death there were riot in Chicago.…

    • 81 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” she said (Emmett Till is murdered, 2017). This bold recant of her testimony sent a message of doubt in many different aspects of civil rights across the…

    • 755 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Emmett till was a 14 year old African American boy who was brutally murdered by two white men. He was a funny, responsible boy that was stricken with polio at a young age (p.4). When he was 5 he recovered from polio and after recovering he had a slight stutter. Emmett also took full responsibilities of domestic housework because his mom was working all the time. He was pretty funny to, he liked to share a lot of jokes with people.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Emmett Till was a young boy who fell into the hands of racism, and was brutally murdered as the result. He was visiting his family in Mississippi. He was accused of whistling at a white woman. In the middle of the night, two white men came to his uncle’s home and kidnapped him. They beat, mutilated, and murdered him.…

    • 461 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The two men brutally beat down Emmett and started to mutilate his body. Then they delivered a fatal gunshot into Till’s body and threw the mutilated body into the Tallahatchie River. These were extreme forces of violence used against him since he was an African American over a dumb accusation in the first place. To add on to the worst possible situation for this poor boy the woman had completely lied about the entire…

    • 892 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    There are countless documented cases of racial-based crimes and it’s effects upon those involved. Some may be more severe and devastating than others, but they are all immensely real. One of the most heard about incidents pertaining to racial hate crimes is the murder of Emmett Till. Along with Emmett Till’s murder, there are stories such as “A Choice of Weapons” by Gordon Parks, and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee, that demonstrate such discrimination. The murder of Emmett Till can very well be described as a tragedy.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In Keith Beauchamp’s documentary, “The Untold Story of Emmett Till,” the dark past of a Mississippi town is brought back to the light of the public. The film discusses the seemingly harmless event which ultimately lead to fourteen year old Emmett Till’s brutal torture and death through the eyes of those who were close to the boy and his family. These events which are relieved by family members and eyewitness’s of that day, along with those to follow, are told to lead up to the unimaginably heartbreaking ruling of non-guilty for this young man’s two killers, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant. The filmmaker formats the piece as such, as well as uses the emotional testimonies of family members and friends, to support the claim that these men were guilty in the first degree of kidnapping, torture, and murder. It can be concluded that Keith Beauchamp is successful in arguing his claim because of the excellent use of pathos in the testimonies of the family, logos in the claims…

    • 879 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The story of 14-year-old Emmett Till was a tragic story. Emmett lived in the world of whites against “colored” people. He grew up in Chicago with his mother, and later decided he wanted to go to Mississippi. Chicago was highly populated with colored people, while Mississippi was more of a very segregated state. The colored people were ordered to spend half of their days picking cotton out in the fields.…

    • 248 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The trial was just about to begin and Scout, Dill and I had snuck in without father’s approval. The seats were filled and I was anxious to get one; just then Reverend Skyes confronted us and offered us a seat in the balcony. The balcony was filled as well and four Negroes offered a seat for Scout, Dill and I and Reverend Skyes. As I sat, I noticed the jury sitting to the left of the courtroom.…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays