Emmett Till Murdered: A Crime That Ignites Civil Rights
Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old from Chicago visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, was kidnapped from his great-uncle's home on August 28, 1955, by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. Three days later, his mutilated body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River with a cotton gin fan wired to his neck. His mother, Mamie Till Bradley, insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago, saying "I want the world to see what they did to my baby." Jet magazine published the photographs, and over 50,000 people filed past the casket. An all-white jury acquitted Bryant and Milam after 67 minutes of deliberation. Both men later confessed to the murder in a paid magazine interview, protected by double jeopardy.
August 28, 1955
71 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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