Emmett Till was born in Chicago and grew up in a middle-class black neighborhood. When he was 14 years old, he was visiting family members in Missouri. At this time, he was accused of either whistling or flirting with a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, but no one is quite sure which, or if anything transpired at all. A few days later when her husband caught wind of the news, he and 3 other men kidnapped Emmett Till and brutally murdered him.These grown men beat Emmett Till, a teenager, shot him in the head and tied him to a metal fan with barbed wire before throwing his corpse into a river. three days later, his body was discovered, and he was only recognizable by a ring he was wearing on his hand since his face had been battered to the point that he was not identifiable.
Emmett's funeral was held in his hometown of Chicago, where his mother decided to have an open casket so his body could be displayed to the public and show people what happened to her son.
There was a murder trial against the four men who did this to him. On an all-white jury, the four men were let off and were not charged with the murder of Emmett Till. Later, because of double jeopardy laws, the men confessed to the killing and described how they did it to a magazine knowing that they could not be tried again for the same crime after being proven innocent already.
After the fact, Emmett's accuser Carolyn Bryant had told someone that Emmett had not even whistled at her, or made any advances at all. She was also quoted as saying "nothing that boy did could justify what happened to him".
Since the American justice system has failed to see through the brutal actions of white people toward black people in the past, it is no shock that it is still going on today since little progress is being made to ensure that trials serve justice to the victims.
Sources:
https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/emmett-till
Wow this is a shocking case. It is crazy to see that almost 65 years later our country is still plagued with the values of racism running deep through society. The case of Emmett Till has an eery resemblance to the Rodney King beatings which took place 35 years later, but had the same result in the all white court. It is also crazy that in the justice system which is meant to be fair and "seek justice", that people are willing to let race take precedence over the cold hard facts just because of their views towards a particular race.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened to Till i a travesty only made worse by that fact that the killers got away. The killers who later admitted that they had in fact committed the crime knowing that they could not be tried for double jeopardy. This will not happen again, if 1 black teenager is beaten and mauled to death to 4 white men will rightfully be tried as a hate crime an those men will die in jail, or be put to death in jail.
ReplyDeleteI remember learning about this case in US History. I was disappointed learning about the outcome of the case and that Carolyn Bryant had lied about what had happened. Although I do believe that there are multiple faults in the justice system, it has improved since this case. I do believe that if this were to happen in this age, the four men would've been found guilty of murder.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this happened many years ago, I think that this case is still relevant today because many of the issues it addresses still persist. While there have been some improvements made to the justice system, I think that there are still changes to be made. Like Emmett's murderers, there are still many who are being set free for committing a crime. For example Darren Wilson, the man who shot Michael Brown, wasn't even charged with any crimes when it's clear he used excessive force and abused his power of being a police officer.
ReplyDelete