A Report on the Significance of the Emmett Till Murder
A Report on the Significance of the Emmett Till Murder
Before talking about Emmet Till and what happened to him, I will explain what life was like for black people in the Deep South. Places in the South of America were some of the most racist, if not the most racist against black people. They believed that black people shouldn’t have equal rights to white people and that they were barely people at all. They also strongly believed that all black men wanted to rape any white women they looked at. This meant that if a black man said anything to a white woman, or even crossed paths with a white woman, then they’d kill him.
Emmett Till was an African-American black boy who was born in Chicago on the 25th July 1941, his mother, Mamie Till, was originally from Mississippi but moved with her parents when she was two to Argo in Illinois as part of the general migration. When he was six, Emmet contracted polio which left him with a stutter. Black people had nearly equal rights and a lot of freedom in Chicago, so he wasn’t prepared for what he encountered when he went to Mississippi. In the summer of 1954 he travelled to Mississippi to visit some relatives.
When Emmett Till and his friends went into the sweet shop, all they wanted was some sweets, but Emmett loved being the centre of attention and got a lot more than he bargained for. Just before leaving the shop he ‘wolf whistled’ at the woman serving them (Roy Bryant’s wife Carolyn). However, his mother stated in a newspaper article that due to his stutter he couldn’t pronounce the letter B and would usually whistle to ask for something like bubblegum. They didn’t know this though, and what they did next would change how the Americans saw blacks forever. Three days after the incident at the shop Roy Bryant and his half brother John William drove to Emmett Till’s uncle’s house and kidnapped Emmett Till. They took him to a barn where they viciously beat him across the head and face, gouging out one of his eyes so it
Before talking about Emmet Till and what happened to him, I will explain what life was like for black people in the Deep South. Places in the South of America were some of the most racist, if not the most racist against black people. They believed that black people shouldn’t have equal rights to white people and that they were barely people at all. They also strongly believed that all black men wanted to rape any white women they looked at. This meant that if a black man said anything to a white woman, or even crossed paths with a white woman, then they’d kill him.
Emmett Till was an African-American black boy who was born in Chicago on the 25th July 1941, his mother, Mamie Till, was originally from Mississippi but moved with her parents when she was two to Argo in Illinois as part of the general migration. When he was six, Emmet contracted polio which left him with a stutter. Black people had nearly equal rights and a lot of freedom in Chicago, so he wasn’t prepared for what he encountered when he went to Mississippi. In the summer of 1954 he travelled to Mississippi to visit some relatives.
When Emmett Till and his friends went into the sweet shop, all they wanted was some sweets, but Emmett loved being the centre of attention and got a lot more than he bargained for. Just before leaving the shop he ‘wolf whistled’ at the woman serving them (Roy Bryant’s wife Carolyn). However, his mother stated in a newspaper article that due to his stutter he couldn’t pronounce the letter B and would usually whistle to ask for something like bubblegum. They didn’t know this though, and what they did next would change how the Americans saw blacks forever. Three days after the incident at the shop Roy Bryant and his half brother John William drove to Emmett Till’s uncle’s house and kidnapped Emmett Till. They took him to a barn where they viciously beat him across the head and face, gouging out one of his eyes so it