Another big Milestone was the story of Emmett Till In August 1955, a 14–year–old black boy from Chicago had recently arrived in Money, Mississippi to visit relatives. While in a grocery store, he allegedly whistled and made a flirtatious remark to the white woman behind the counter, violating the strict racial codes of the Jim Crow South. Three days later, two white men—the woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half–brother, J.W. Milam—dragged Till from his great uncle’s house in the middle of the night. After beating the boy, they shot him to death and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River. The two men confessed to kidnapping Till but were acquitted of murder charges by an all–white, all–male jury after barely an hour of deliberations. Never brought to justice, Bryant
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Parks refused, and was arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation ordinances, which mandated that blacks sit in the back of public buses and give up their seats for white riders if the front seats were full. Parks, a 42–year–old seamstress, was also the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. As she later explained: “I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed.I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen.” Four days after Parks’ arrest, an activist organization called the Montgomery Improvement Association (led by Martin Luther King,Jr) spearheaded a boycott of the city’s municipal bus company. African Americans made up some 70 percent of the bus company’s riders at the time, and the great majority of Montgomery’s black citizens supported the bus boycott, its impact was immediate. About 90 boycotters, including King, were indicted under a law forbidding conspiracy to obstruct the operation of a business. Found guilty, King immediately appealed the
Parks refused, and was arrested for violating the city’s racial segregation ordinances, which mandated that blacks sit in the back of public buses and give up their seats for white riders if the front seats were full. Parks, a 42–year–old seamstress, was also the secretary of the Montgomery chapter of the NAACP. As she later explained: “I had been pushed as far as I could stand to be pushed.I had decided that I would have to know once and for all what rights I had as a human being and a citizen.” Four days after Parks’ arrest, an activist organization called the Montgomery Improvement Association (led by Martin Luther King,Jr) spearheaded a boycott of the city’s municipal bus company. African Americans made up some 70 percent of the bus company’s riders at the time, and the great majority of Montgomery’s black citizens supported the bus boycott, its impact was immediate. About 90 boycotters, including King, were indicted under a law forbidding conspiracy to obstruct the operation of a business. Found guilty, King immediately appealed the