Emmett Till Racism

Racism has been a growing issue in society for many years now. In the past, places like public restrooms, water fountains, restaurants, and other public facilities segregated African Americans and Caucasians. Although there were people who were racist towards anyone that was not white, a big controversy that effects the present is between African Americans and Caucasians. Throughout history, African Americans have fought for equal rights in order to have their voices heard and to be able to have input on what happens in the places they reside. Racism, discrimination, and hate crimes against African Americans have always been prevalent, and are especially expound in the case of Emmett Till, a young boy who was brutally murder for the alleged …show more content…
Emmett Till, who was a fourteen-years-old boy at the time, was accused of whistling at a white woman in a store and running away. Four days later, white men abducted Emmett Till from his uncle’s house and later, brutally beaten and murder him. His body was dismembered and thrown away, only after a late discovery that he was missing. Emmett Till’s mother wanted an open casket funeral to show people the brutality of her son’s death. Emmett Till was forced to take off his clothes by the abductors and then he was beaten nearly to death. The abductors gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, which was tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire for dismembering, into the river ("The Death of Emmett Till."). Modern cases similar to Emmett Till’s are common, but not as severe. African Americans had to be careful about what they said and how they acted around white people because there was fear that something bad would happen. The involvement of Emmett Till in his alleged crime was harmless because it was a simple dare amongst teenage boys that was taken the wrong way. Even though, to Emmett Till and his friends, it was a harmless joke. The white people involved in the joke found it disrespectful. In result, the dare resulted in Emmett Till’s brutal death. White people during this era seemed to be acquitted from most of their charges because they were white and the victims were black. Emmett Till’s murders were acquitted from all charges and let free by an all-white jury, which sparked a civil rights movement. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s response to Emmett Till’s trial was, “The evil of racial injustice” (Till, Emmett Louis) because it was not a fair trial. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. also responded to Emmett Till’s death by stating, “that it might be considered one of the most brutal and