His Tragic Death Saddened the Nation As His Killers Walked Free
Now Emmett Till’s boyhood Chicago home gains landmark status
Emmett was 14 years old when he visited family in Mississippi; he had begged his mother to allow him to go. The year was 1955, and Emmett wanted to spend the summer with his cousins. But after his mother put him on the southbound train from Chicago, Emmett never returned to his home alive.
Emmett’s only crime was misunderstanding how a young Black boy needed to behave to survive in the deeply racist south. And because of this misunderstanding, he was taken from his bed in the middle of the night and brutally murdered.
The motive? Emmett had allegedly flirted with and whistled at a white woman.
The murder
Two grown white men pulled a 14-year-old boy out of his bed in the middle of the night in the small town of Money, Mississippi. A boy his family nicknamed “Bobo.” A boy that loved ones described as “funny, responsible, and high-spirited.”
They dragged this boy from his uncle’s home, remorselessly beat him, shot him, and then dumped his body in the Tallahatchie River.
And when Emmett’s mangled body was returned to his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, she bravely insisted on a public and open-casket funeral to show the world the truth of what they had done to her son.
“I think everybody needed to know what had happened to Emmett Till.” — Mamie Till-Mobley
Jet Magazine published graphic images from the funeral, sparking horror and outrage around the world. And Mamie continued her fight against racism, giving speeches for the NAACP across the country.
It would be a little over three months later when Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus. Shortly after that, Martin Luther King Jr. called for the bus boycott, and the Civil Rights movement began.
Emmett’s boyhood home
Now, 65 years later, the Chicago City Council designated Emmett’s former home a historical landmark with plans to turn it into a museum. Two nonprofit organizations, Preservation Chicago and Blacks in Green had been working for the designation for almost five years.
“There are people across the world who are invested in the Emmett Till story, who are curious,” said Naomi Davis, Blacks in Green founder and CEO. “We will have a fully operating museum that will perform its role on the international stage as a heritage pilgrimage site.”
There was never justice
Justice was never served for Emmett’s murderers. Some of the facts leading up to his murder remain vague, but one thing is known, nothing Emmett had done deserved such a horrible fate.
On the hot, summer day of August 28, 1955, Emmett and his cousins stopped at Bryant’s Grocery for refreshments after a day of picking cotton. The store was owned by a married couple, Roy and Carolyn Bryant.
Carolyn was working behind the counter when Emmett arrived. She later claimed that he had grabbed her and spoken crudely. It wasn’t until many years later that she admitted these claims were false.
Emmett’s cousin stated that Emmett was only in the store alone with Carolyn for less than a minute, and when his cousin entered, he saw no inappropriate behavior.
Exactly what happened in that brief moment between Carolyn and Emmett is unknown. What we do know is that after buying their refreshments, Emmett and his cousins were standing outside the store when Carolyn walked out and headed to her car. It was then that Emmett whistled at her.
Emmett’s cousins knew instantly that Emmett had unwittingly made a grave mistake and put them all in danger. They left immediately.
Once Carolyn’s husband Roy heard about the incident, he and his half-brother, J.W. Milam went in search of the boy that had whistled at the white woman. When they found him, they took him from his uncle’s house in the middle of the night, drove him to a barn where they beat and shot him, and then dumped his body in the river.
It wasn’t long after Emmett’s body was discovered washed up in the Tallahatchie River before Roy and J.W. were arrested. They couldn’t afford a legal defense, but five local lawyers defended their case pro bono.
The trial
During the trial, the national and international press poured into the small town. Locals came from all around as if for a summer festival. They brought their children. They had picnics on the green lawn in front of the courthouse. They ate ice cream cones in the sunshine.
The Black community was relegated to standing room only in the back of the courtroom to watch the proceedings. Roy, Carolyn, and J.W. reached a level of celebrity status, with reporters calling Carolyn a “crossroads Marilyn Monroe.”
At that time, there were no Black residents that were registered voters, so the jury was all-white. There was little doubt in anyone’s minds that Roy and J.W. had killed the boy. The prosecution painted a clear picture that the men were responsible for Emmett’s death.
But, after deliberating for all of 68 minutes, the jury announced Roy and J.W. were “not guilty.”
A few months later, the two sold their story to Look Magazine for $4,000. They freely spoke of the murder and made a full confession. But justice would still not be served. They could not be tried again due to the double jeopardy clause.
Both men died of cancer years ago, without ever having spent a day in prison to pay for their crime.
A legacy
Mamie fought hard to make the world aware of the injustice done to her son. And now the 2,400 square foot home built in 1895 where Emmett lived with his mother will be forever preserved as a place to honor their legacy.
The stunning revelation that a white person could get away with the brutal murder of a Black child, simply because he was Black and they were white, sparked an outrage that lit a flame across the nation.
It was 100 days after Emmett’s murder that Rosa Parks kept her seat on the bus.
“I thought about Emmett Till, and I couldn’t go back.” — Rosa Parks
