On August 28, 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black teenager, was kidnapped at gunpoint by two white men from his uncle’s house in rural Mississippi. Till’s body was found on August 31 in the river, unrecognizable and missing an eye. It was his death that served as one of the central factors behind the American Civil Rights Movement.
US President Joe Biden recently announced that he will establish a national monument in honor of Emmett Till. According to an Associated Press report, 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 Memorial. This monument will encompass three significant sites located in Illinois and Mississippi, and will serve as a tribute to the enduring legacy of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
BREAKING: President Biden has announced that he will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley.
Details:
– The National Monument will span 3 locations in Illinois and Mississippi, and… pic.twitter.com/VHRk4xzwDa
—Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein)
July 23, 2023
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, in rural Mississippi. He arrived on August 21, 1955 and settled with his great-uncle, Moses Wright, who was a sharecropper (a tenant who gives part of each harvest as rent). During his stay, Till contributed to the cotton harvest, working diligently in the field.
On August 24, Till and a group of fellow teens decided to visit a nearby grocery store. What they didn’t know was that this seemingly harmless decision would set off a chain of events that would reverberate throughout history. There are different versions of what happened next, but Till allegedly flirted with the store’s cashier, Carolyne Bryant, a white woman. Some time later, two white men, Roy Bryant, Carolyne’s husband, and JW Milam, Bryant’s half-brother, forced their way into the Wright residence and kidnapped Till at gunpoint. What happened next is nothing short of brutal and gruesome.
Bryant and Milam mercilessly beat the young man, severely injuring him and gouging out one of his eyes. He was then taken to the banks of the Tallahatchie River and killed with a single shot to the head. They then tied Till’s lifeless body to a large metal fan, wrapped barbed wire around his neck, and threw him into the river.
Meanwhile, Wright filed a police report about the kidnapping and Roy and Milam were arrested the next day. Two days later, Till’s body was found in the river, completely unrecognizable except for his father’s monogrammed ring.
Till’s funeral was held on September 6, 1955. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, decided to leave Emmett’s casket open during his funeral, exposing the world to the heartbreaking truth of the brutality inflicted on him. The shocking images of his son’s brutally disfigured body were published in major publications such as Jet magazine and the Chicago Defender. Thousands gathered at the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, Chicago, to mourn the death of Emmett Till.
Thirteen days after Till’s funeral, Bryant and Milam stood 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 murder of Emmett Till.
In May 2004, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) reopened the investigation into Till’s case to determine whether other people were involved in the crime. They collaborated with the Mississippi district attorney, the federal prosecutor, federal attorneys and local authorities. 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 violations had expired. This meant that it was no longer possible to prosecute the case at the federal level.
And so, the brutal murderers 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 leading figure in the rise of the Civil Rights Movement.
Categories: Optical Illusion
Source: ptivs2.edu.vn