Emergence of the civil rights movement - continued
The murder of Emmett Till
Emmet Till was a 14-year-old African American who lived in Chicago. During August 1955, Till was visiting his cousins in the southern town of Money, Mississippi, and went to a local store.
He was accused of harassing a local white woman working in the store. This alarmed his cousins because the A white supremacist organisation that used violence and intimidation to target black, immigrant, Jewish and Catholic people. Its members believe, based on incorrect and unscientific ideas about evolution, that white people are superior and should therefore hold the power in society. were regularly violent towards African Americans.
Three days after the incident, Emmett was kidnapped from his uncleâs house. He was tortured, To disfigure or remove parts of a body. and shot. His body was found in a river.
Two local men, Roy Bryant and JW Milam, were arrested and put on trial for the murder in September 1955. Tillâs uncle identified Bryant and Milam as the men who had kidnapped Emmett from his house. However, they were both found not guilty by the all-white jury, who took only 67 minutes to make their decision.
Emmett Tillâs funeral
Tillâs funeral was held in Chicago. It drew mass media attention. One reason for this was the brutal nature of Tillâs death. Another was the fact that Bryant and Milam had been found not guilty despite witness accounts suggesting they had committed the murder.
Tillâs mother, Mamie Till, decided to hold an open-casket funeral. She intended that the mourners could view his body and see how brutally he had been beaten. Images of his open casket were too shocking for most newspapers to print and television channels to broadcast.
Aftermath of Emmett Tillâs funeral
Mamie Till began giving speeches across America on the importance of civil rights, regularly drawing crowds of over 10,000 people. Rallies and protests were held across the country as African Americans and many others were outraged at the treatment of black people.
More guides on this topic
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- Broadening of the campaigns for civil rights - Race - OCR A
- Broadening of the campaigns for civil rights - Women's rights - OCR A
- Broadening of the campaigns for civil rights - Gay rights - OCR A
- Politics and protest - OCR A
- Social problems and attempts to tackle them - OCR A