Summary

The murder of Emmitt Till in 1955 and the subsequent acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury was a pivotal moment in the American Civil Rights Movement, galvanizing public opinion and leading to significant social and legislative changes, paralleling the impact of George Floyd's death nearly seventy years later.

Abstract

Emmitt Till, a 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago, was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955 after allegedly whistling at a white store clerk, Carolyn Bryant. His death, and the subsequent acquittal of his killers, Roy Bryant and J. Milam, by an all-white jury, despite strong evidence and eyewitnesses, sparked national outrage and became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. The case highlighted the deep-seated racism and segregationist policies in the South, which were being challenged by federal laws like Brown v. Board of Education. The injustice of Till's murder influenced key figures such as Rosa Parks and Martin Luther King Jr., leading to events like the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The lack of federal intervention in Till's case due to jurisdictional constraints eventually led to the drafting of the Civil Rights Bill. The article draws a parallel between Till's murder and the death of George Floyd, suggesting that both incidents occurred at times when the nation was primed for change, and both served as catalysts for broader discussions and actions against systemic racism.

Opinions

The article suggests that Emmitt Till's murder was not just an isolated incident but a symptom of the broader racial tensions and segregationist policies of the time.
It posits that the federal government's inaction in Till's case, due to it being seen as a matter between private citizens, was a significant factor in the subsequent push for civil rights legislation.
The piece implies that the confession of Till's killers in Look Magazine, protected by double jeopardy, was a clear miscarriage of justice and an example of the systemic issues within the legal system.
The author believes that the deaths of Emmitt Till and George Floyd were not in vain, as they both served to ignite public passion and have led to meaningful conversations and actions towards racial equality.
The article conveys a sense of optimism that, despite the tragedies, there is a prospect of better days ahead where character is judged independently of skin color.

Emmitt Till Woke the Country Seventy Years Before George Floyd

Both deaths transformed how we deal with the issue of racism

Source: Jackson Free Press Location: https://www.jacksonfreepress.com/photos/latest/

In the summer of 1955, Emmitt Till was a fourteen-year-old black boy living in Chicago. His mother was born in Mississippi, and as a baby, their family had been part of the Great Migration.

In Chicago, Mami Till (Emmitt’s Mother) lived with her son as a single mother. Emmitt begged his mom to go down to Mississippi to visit family before the summer was over. Reluctantly she agreed. When he left on the train, that was the last time she saw him alive.

Arriving in the south, he had a great time with his cousins. They picked cotton during the day as well as swam in the local river. They made enough money for some pocket change and headed over to Bryant’s Grocery.

It was here that Emmitt Till did something that would cost him his life. He “wolf-whistled” at the white store clerk whose name was Carolyn Bryant.

Bryant’s Grocery Store Source:http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/till/bryantstore.html

Here is where I have to explain the culture at the time in the south. The situations were tense. The Supreme Court had just declared that the segregation of schools unconstitutional. The southern whites were angry. So much so that they formed the Citizens Counsel who had all the same tactics as the Ku Klux Klan, under a more respectable title.

Their platform became state rights. They wanted to protect their way of life from federal laws such as Brown v. Board of Education. They thought things were just fine there the way they were and didn’t want black people voting or going to school with their white children.

This would threaten their social caste and order of whites on top, and black in subservient roles on the bottom. Because of the federal encroachment on their way of life, tensions were high.

These tensions are what led J. Milam and Roy Bryant to kidnap Emmitt Till that August night in Mississippi. Roy Bryant was the husband of the woman whom Emmitt wolf-whistled. They brutally tortured and murdered Emmitt to teach those “Yankee blacks” a lesson. His body was found a few days later in the Tallahatchie River.

Roy Bryant and J. Milam at trial Source:http://law2.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/till/bryantstore.html

This story captivated the world. The tension of the era was ripe for a revolution, and Emmitt Till’s murder was the spark that ignited the fire.

Three months later, an all-white jury acquitted the accused even though Medgar Evers, head of the NAACP in Mississippi at the time, had secured eyewitnesses to the case.

Many petitioned the federal government to get involved, but this was the era before the civil rights bill. Those in charge at the federal level insisted the federal government could not get involved in a matter like this because it was between private citizens.

It’s important to note, the attorney general at the time, Herbert Brownell Jr., later went on to draft the Civil Rights Bill as a result of him feeling powerless over not getting involved federally in the Trial of Emmitt Till.

Ironically the following year in Look Magazine, the accused admitted to killing Emmitt Till. They knew they could do this without recourse because they were protected by double jeopardy. Nobody was ever held accountable for the death of Emmitt Till. The killers made $4,000 for selling their story to the magazine.

Photo Credit: Library of Congress Rosa Parks Collection

A few days after Emmitt Till’s body was found, there was another woman, Rosa Parks, who walked to a church in Alabama and heard the pastor rage about the injustices done to blacks, most recently the murder Emmit Till.

This murder was enough to empower Mrs. Parks, who was already a member of the NAACP, to refuse to give up her seat on the bus for a white person four months later, in December 1955. Her subsequent arrest led to the Montgomery Bus Boycott. The leader of that boycott was selected. He was a 26-year old brilliant orator named Martin Luther King Jr.

Dr. King led the nation through the next thirteen years of the Civil Rights Movement until he was assassinated in 1968. His assignation meant to destroy the momentum of the civil rights movement, and that’s what it did — the campaign effectively died after his death.

So, here we are 53 years later, with the death of George Floyd. Like Emmitt Till, Floyd was an unlikely character of a movement.

But like the time of the Emmitt Till murder, the nation was ripe for a change. We have stagnated for the past 50 years without having any real conversations for change. We have drifted through this time with tension. We did so without listening to each other.

We rested on the notion that the Civil Rights movement was enough. That we were at the end, and we had evolved. We have a month for black history; we have a day for Martin Luther King jr, we have a statue of his figure in the nation’s capital. Clearly, that has not penetrated the deep-seated racism that still exists in the heart of the people.

We have a movement that’s ignited for change, and finally, it seems like the majority are listening.

It is tragic that Emmitt Till and George Floyd had to die to ignite the passion of the people, but surely, their deaths were not in vain. Surely we are looking at better days ahead where the content of a person’s character is not judged by the color of their skin.

If you would like to see the history of the civil rights movement you can check out my post here.