Background

Life as an African-American growing up in the State of Mississippi during the 1950's was a life of segregation, fear and unequal rights. Most black people at the time were appointed to a life of long hours picking cotton in the fields of Mississippi. On August 20, 1955 Emmett Till leaves his hometown of Chicago to stay with his family in Money, Mississippi. Money was a small town with about 5-6 stores in the local area. There was one particular store called Bryant Groceries (owned by Roy and Carolyn Bryant).

On the day of August 24, 1955 Till and 7 other teenagers go into the grocery store to get refreshments and candy. While Till finishes giving his money to the cashier (Carolyn Bryant) after buying a piece of gum, witnesses say that he whistled at her. She stormed out and the children got in the car and went back home. At around 2:30 AM that night, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam came looking for the boy that whistled at his wife. They figured out that it was Emmett. Till was then taken, brutally beaten, shot in the head and thrown in the water with a 75-pound fan wrapped in barb wire around his neck and left to sink to the bottom of the Tallahatchie River.

Bryant and Milam were then both arrested on charges of kidnapping. About 3 days later, Till's body is discovered. The body was so brutally mutilated, that the only way they could determine that it was actually Emmett was by the ring on his finger that read L.T. (initials for his father's name). The appalling and senseless crime made waves in the media when Mamie Till, the mother of Emmett had an open-casket funeral to show the world what these two white people did to her son. Thousands of people lined up in Robert Temples Temple Church of God to see the body and are utterly shocked at what they saw. The murder trial had an all-white jury and it took them only 67 minutes to determine that Milam and Bryant were not guilty of murder.

Media Coverage

The story of Emmett Till was told through multiple publications, but Jet magazine was the best known publication for having multiple issues that held articles and images about the death of Till. The image of Till's body being published in the magazine brought up a lot of controversy in the newsroom. There were two sides of argument for posting such a gruesome photo. The world needed to know what these two white men did to this innocent 14 year-old, but the mutilated body was hard to look at.



Jet magazine made sure that the White American Press had this story brought to their attention to bring on what was going on in Mississippi. On September 15, 1955 Jet published the pictures of the mutilated body and it shocked african Americans across the nation.



On September 17, 1955 The Chicago Defender also publishes photos of Till's corpse. This time the picture is displayed on the front cover. Over the years, The Defender has published about 200 images of or relating to Till's body. Some of the pictures included photos from the court case, J. W. Milam,
the Bryant family and much more.




Black reporters and the African American community were scared to speak out at the time. The fear that would end up like Till. Black reporters had to be careful when they were broadcasting the news to the media. Even after Till's memorial, folks started to leave immediately so that they would insure that nothing bad would happen to them.



There were a few brave people that testified during the murder trial and to try and help the all-white jury see that Milam and Bryant were guilty. The testimony of Moses Wright, Emmett's great uncle was shocking. He pointed toward Milam and Bryant when asked about who came by their house on August 28th looking for Emmett. He immediately fled Mississippi and never returned. If he were to stay, who knows what fatal consequences he would have faced.



Mamie Till (Emmett's mother) participated in anti-lynch rallies and was involved in multiple interviews to show that lynching needed to be abolished. White American Press started to take notice and the story spread to other publications nationwide.



It's frustrating to see Milam and Bryant get away with murder. Emmett was described as being a boy full of life by his family. They even said he was a jokester and a lover of attention. To learn about what happened to him for just whistling at a woman is appalling. Over 60 years later and Till's story still plays a big role in history.

Sources

• Kolin, Philip C. (2013). On the record: The Emmett Till murder trial and the Southern press.(Essay). Southern Quarterly, 50(3), 28-31.
•   http://jetcityorange.com/emmett-till/
• http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1969702
•  To be a 'Negro' newsman--reporting on the Emmett Till murder trial.(Cold Case Reporting: Revisiting Racial Crimes). (2011). Nieman Reports, 65(3), 26.
• http://www.jetmag.com/life/60-years-later-remembering-emmett-till/#.VtYGv5MrKRs
• http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/p_wrights.html
• http://mts.lib.uchicago.edu/artifacts/index.php?id=defender
• http://www.umbc.edu/cadvc/foralltheworld/section3/till.php

Images:

• https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYNXscXh6sZKzKixhubFvbSujeIS4JLsO73wuqy5RAAn0Ge4wqIw1Nkwv5gK9syKZRyH0v05oo0LU1Bq4K_Gl19TORCeNbPKhatJF-dlUFZTSqVhE02LN1qaniA3KtKwjwEgUoCyHCl9S3/s400/emmett1+store3.jpeg
• http://image.pbs.org/video-assets/pbs/american-experience/98601/images/Mezzanine_631.jpg
• http://wgbhprojects.s3.amazonaws.com/EYES%20ON%20THE%20PRIZE/EOTP-101-Awakenings_MosesWright_C.jpg
• https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/84/4f/79/844f79c97257c68d5682f7e817581721.jpg
• Jet Magazine images can be found at: http://jetcityorange.com/emmett-till/
• https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkQHPsIZZqJCt4AvJh9aCV1tkmCPjM4sUaUVdKNKRnLrkYn5kJ9Qoj0tmTasmp_9OydTWLhmLSkFkIcSD7bIZ5aGtfS95h1r__jWMD1OVgD2tylU8a3TaZeuOvcQ64c4WTXjK0MORny6B8/s400/till_clipping350.jpg