His lynching is one of the most infamous crimes in America’s history.
In the summer of 1955, a 14-year-old black boy named Emmett Till was abducted at gunpoint by white men in Money, Mississippi, then beaten, shot in the head, and thrown into the Tallahatchie River. Till, who lived in Chicago and was in Mississippi visiting relatives, was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman in a store. At the murder trial, witnesses clearly identified the perpetrators, but an all-white jury in a deeply segregated South acquitted them, and the men walked free. Many experts say the brutal killing, as well as the gruesome photos that circulated of Till’s mutilated body at his funeral in Chicago, helped galvanize the civil rights movement.
His lynching is one of the most infamous crimes in America’s history.
In the summer of 1955, a 14-year-old black boy named Emmett Till was abducted at gunpoint by white men in Money, Mississippi. They beat the young boy. Then they shot him in the head and threw him into the Tallahatchie River. Emmett, who lived in Chicago, was in Mississippi visiting relatives. He was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman in a store. At the murder trial, witnesses clearly identified the perpetrators. But an all-white jury in a deeply segregated South acquitted them. The perpetrators walked free.
Many experts say the brutal killing, as well as the gruesome photos that circulated of Till’s mutilated body at his funeral in Chicago, helped galvanize the civil rights movement.