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On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black teenager, was abducted at gunpoint by two white men from his uncle’s house in rural Mississipi. Till’s body was found on August 31 in the river, unrecognizable with one of his eyes missing. It was his death that served as one of the core factors behind the American Civil Rights Movement.
The President of the U.S., Joe Biden, recently announced that he will establish a national monument in honour of Emmett Till. According to a report by the Associated Press, an anonymous White House official revealed that in commemoration of Emmett Till's birth in 1941, President Biden will sign a proclamation establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. This monument will encompass three significant sites located in Illinois and Mississippi, serving as a tribute to the enduring legacy of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
BREAKING: President Biden has announced that on Tuesday he will sign a proclamation to establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley.
Details:
- The National Monument will span across 3 locations in Illinois and Mississippi, and… pic.twitter.com/VHRk4xzwDa
Who is Emmett Till?
Emmett Louis Till, born on July 15, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois, to working-class parents, was an African American teenager. When he was fourteen, Till went on a summer trip to live with his uncle in Money, rural Mississippi. He arrived on August 21, 1955, and took up residence with his great-uncle, Moses Wright, who was a sharecropper (a tenant farmer who gives part of each crop as rent). During his stay, Till contributed to the cotton harvest, working diligently in the fields.
On August 24, Till and a group of fellow teenagers decided to visit a nearby grocery store. Little did they know that this seemingly harmless decision would set off a chain of events that would reverberate through history. There are different versions of what transpired after, but allegedly, Till flirted with the grocery store’s cashier, Carolyne Bryant, a white woman. Sometime later, two white men, Roy Bryant, Carolyne’s husband, and J.W. Milam, Bryant’s half-brother, forcibly entered the Wright residence and abducted Till at gunpoint. What happened after is nothing short of brutal and horrifying.
Bryant and Milam mercilessly beat the young boy, causing severe injuries and gouging out one of his eyes. They then took him to the banks of the Tallahatchie River and killed him with a single gunshot to the head. They then tied Till's lifeless body to a large metal fan, wrapping barbed wire around his neck, before disposing of him in the river.
Meanwhile, Wright filed a complaint with the police about the abduction, and Roy and Milam were arrested the next day. Two days later, Till’s body was found in the river, totally unrecognizable except for his father’s monogrammed ring.
Till’s funeral was held on September 6, 1955. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, chose to leave Emmett's casket open during his funeral, exposing the world to the harrowing truth of the brutality inflicted on him. The shocking images of her son's brutally disfigured body were published in major publications like Jet magazine and the Chicago Defender. Thousands of people gathered at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, Chicago, to mourn Emmett Till's death.
Thirteen days after Till's funeral, Bryant and Milam were put on trial. Four days later, despite 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 the killing of Emmett Till.
In May 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reopened the investigation into Till's case to determine if there were other people involved in the crime. They collaborated with the Mississippi District Attorney, U.S. Attorney, federal attorneys, and local law enforcement. In 2005, Till's body was exhumed for an autopsy.
In March 2006, the FBI concluded its exhaustive investigation and confirmed that the statute of limitations for any potential federal criminal civil rights violation had expired. This meant that federal prosecution for the case was no longer possible.
And hence, the brutal killers of a 14-year-old teenager went unpunished. Mamie Till-Mobley would dedicate the rest of her life to bringing justice to her son and becoming a prominent figure in the emergence of the Civil Rights Movement.