Who is Emmett Till?

Who is Emmett Till?

On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black teenager, was kidnapped by two white men from his uncle’s home in rural Mississippi. Till’s body was found in the river on August 31, unrecognizable because one of his eyes was missing. It was his death that was one of the core factors behind the American Civil Rights Movement.

US President Joe Biden recently announced that he will create a national monument in honor of Emmett Till. As reported by the Associated Press, an unnamed White House official revealed that to commemorate Emmett Till’s birthday in 1941, President Biden will sign a proclamation establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. . This monument will include three important sites located in Illinois and Mississippi, in memory of the enduring legacy of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.

BREAKING: President Biden announced that on Tuesday he will sign a proclamation establishing a national monument in honor of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley.

Detail:

– The National Monument will span 3 locations in Illinois and Mississippi, and… pic.twitter.com/VHRk4xzwDa

– Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein)
July 23, 2023

Who is Emmett Till?

Emmett Louis Till, born July 15, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois, to working-class parents, is an African-American teenager. When she was fourteen, Till went on a summer vacation to live with her uncle in Money, rural Mississippi. He arrived on August 21, 1955, and stayed with his great-uncle, Moses Wright, a sharecropper (a tenant farmer rents out a portion of each crop). During his time here, Till contributed to the cotton harvest, working hard in the fields.

On August 24, Till and a group of teenagers decided to visit a nearby grocery store. Little did they know that this seemingly innocuous decision would trigger a chain of events that would reverberate throughout history. There are different versions of what happened next, but it is alleged that Till flirted with the grocery store cashier, Carolyne Bryant, a white woman. Some time later, two white men, Roy Bryant, Carolyne’s husband, and JW Milam, Bryant’s half-brother, burst into Wright’s mansion and kidnap Till with a gun. What happened after that was nothing short of brutal and horrifying.

Bryant and Milam mercilessly beat the boy, severely injuring him and gouging out one eye. They then took him to the banks of the Tallahatchie River and killed him with a shot to the head. They then tied Till’s lifeless body to a large metal fan, wrapping barbed wire around his neck before dumping the body in the river.

Meanwhile, Wright filed a complaint with the police about the kidnapping, and Roy and Milam were arrested the next day. Two days later, Till’s body was found in the river, completely unrecognizable except for his father’s monogrammed ring.

Till’s funeral was held on September 6, 1955. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, chose to open Emmett’s coffin during his funeral, showing the world the heartbreaking truth about the brutality that was committed. caused you. Shocking images of her son’s brutally disfigured body have been featured in major publications such as Jet magazine and Chicago Defender. Thousands of people gathered at Roberts Temple of God in Christ Church in Bronzeville, Chicago to mourn the death of Emmett Till.

Thirteen days after Till’s funeral, Bryant and Milam were brought to trial. Four days later, despite the witnesses, the two men were acquitted of all charges by an all-white male jury. A year later, in a paid interview with Look magazine, Bryant and Milam confessed to killing Emmett Till.

In May 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reopened its investigation into Till’s case to determine whether other people were involved in the crime. They partner with the Mississippi District Attorney, United States Attorney, federal attorney, and local law enforcement. In 2005, Till’s body was exhumed for an autopsy.

In March 2006, the FBI concluded its comprehensive investigation and confirmed that the statute of limitations for any potential federal criminal civil rights violations had expired. This means that federal prosecution of the case is no longer possible.

And so those who brutally murdered a 14-year-old boy went unpunished. Mamie Till-Mobley will dedicate the rest of her life to bringing justice for her son and becoming a prominent figure in the rise of the Civil Rights Movement.

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Source: pagasa.edu.vn

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