Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family’s grocery store. The brutality of his murder, as well as the fact that his killers were acquitted, drew attention to the United States’ long history of violent persecution of African Americans. Till became a symbol of the civil rights movement after his death.
Till was raised in Chicago, Illinois. He was visiting relatives near Money, Mississippi, in the Mississippi Delta region, during his summer vacation in August 1955. Carolyn Bryant, the white, married proprietor of a small grocery store nearby, was 21 at the time. Although what occurred in the store is debatable, Till was accused of flirting with, touching, or whistling at Bryant. Till’s interaction with Bryant, perhaps unwittingly, violated the Jim Crow-era South’s unwritten code of behavior for a black male interacting with a white female. Several nights after the store incident, Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam went to Till’s great-house uncle’s and kidnapped Emmett. They kidnapped him, mutilated him, shot him in the head, and threw his body into the Tallahatchie River. The boy’s mutilated and bloated body was discovered and retrieved from the river three days later.
Till’s body was returned to Chicago, where his mother insisted on an open casket funeral service at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ. It was later revealed that “Mamie Till Bradley’s open-coffin funeral revealed more than her son Emmett Till’s bloated, mutilated body. Her decision drew attention not only to racism in the United States and the barbarism of lynching, but also to the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy “. Tens of thousands of people attended his funeral or viewed his open casket, and images of his mutilated body were published in black-oriented magazines and newspapers across the country, galvanizing popular black support and white sympathy. The lack of black civil rights in Mississippi drew intense scrutiny, with newspapers across the country condemning the state. Although local newspapers and law enforcement officials initially condemned the violence against Till and demanded justice, in the face of national criticism, they defended Mississippians, temporarily siding with the killers.
In September 1955, an all-white jury found Bryant and Milam not guilty of Till’s murder. Protected against double jeopardy, the two men publicly admitted in a 1956 interview with Look magazine that they had tortured and murdered the boy, selling the story of how they did it for $4,000 (equivalent to $40,000 in 2021). Till’s murder was seen as a catalyst for the next phase of the civil rights movement. In December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott began in Alabama and lasted more than a year, resulting eventually in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional. According to historians, events surrounding Till’s life and death continue to resonate.
An Emmett Till Memorial Commission was established in the early 21st century. The Sumner County Courthouse was restored and includes the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. Fifty-one sites in the Mississippi Delta are memorialized as associated with Till. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, an American law which makes lynching a federal hate crime, was signed into law on March 29, 2022 by President Joe Biden.
Emmett Louis Till (July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955) would have been 82 years old in 2023, 83 in 2024, 84 in 2025. He was a 14-year-old African American boy from Mississippi who was kidnapped, tortured, and lynched in 1955.
African American community gathers for the Emmett Till protest at Sharp St Church, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
3. ‘Mamie Bradley Airport’
Mamie Bradley, mother of lynched teenager Emmett Till, receives her baggage at the Philadelphia International Airport before speaking at the NAACP, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
4. Mamie Till Weeping at Arrival of Slain Son
Sinking to knees, Mamie Till-Bradley weeps as the body of her murdered 14-year-old son, Emmett Louis Till, arrives at Chicago Rail Station, Chicago, Illinois, December 2, 1955. Around her are Bishop Louis J Ford, Gene Mabley, and Bishop Isiak Roberts, of St Paul’s Church of Christ and God. Bradley’s son had been kidnapped and murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman during a trip to Mississippi. (Photo by Bettmann/Getty Images)
5. Mose Wright & Maurice Wright
American farmer and preacher Mose Wright (1890-1977) and his son, Maurice Wright (1939-1991), on the Grover Frederick Plantation in Money, Mississippi, 18th September 1955. Mose was the uncle of Black teenager Emmett Till who was kidnapped and murdered after he was alleged to have whistled at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, with Mose giving evidence at the trial of those accused of the murder. (Photo by Bettmann Archive via Getty Images)
6. ‘Mamie Bradley Oath’
Mamie Bradley, mother of lynched teenager Emmett Till, swears an oath in court, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
7. ‘Mamie Bradley Dinner’
Mamie Bradley, mother of lynched teenager Emmett Till, stands with her father John Carson (left) and the reporter who covered the Emmett Till trial, Jimmy Hicks (right), September 12, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
8. ‘Mamie Bradley Speech’
Mamie Bradley, mother of lynched teenager Emmett Till, delivers a speech, Baltimore, Maryland, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
9. ‘Mamie Bradley Police’
Mamie Bradley, mother of lynched teenager Emmett Till, speaks with her father and a police interviewer, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
10. Mamie Till Portrait
Portrait of Mamie Till Bradley, mother of Emmett Till, the teenager murdered in a racially motivated attack in Mississippi, smoking a cigarette, Sumner, Mississippi, September 1, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
11. Mamie Till Bradley
Mamie Till Bradley, mother to Emmett Till the victim of a racially motivated murder in 1955, with her father, Emmet Till’s grandfather, Sumner, Mississippi, September 1, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
12. Overhead View of Trial Proceedings
Interior view of the segregated seating in the packed Tallahatchie County Courthouse during the trial of J W Milam and Roy Bryant who were accused of the murder of Emmett Till, Sumner, Mississippi, September 1955. (Photo by Bettmann via Getty Images)
13. Church Protest
(Original Caption) Harlem, Manhattan, New York, New York: A meeting to protest the acquittal in Mississippi of two white men accused of the murder of Emmett Louis Till, a 14 year old Negro boy, was held in Harlem’s Williams Institutional C.M.E. Church today. Mrs. Bradley, mother of the boy, weeps as many speakers denounced the decision made by the jury. Seated with Mrs. Bradley is her father, John Carthan. One of the defendants, Roy Bryant, said young Till had whistled at his young wife.
(Original Caption) Chicago: Mourners and curiosity seekers flock around entrance to Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ here during funeral services for Emmett Till, 14, Chicago boy slain in Mississippi recently while on vacation. Till, a Negro, was kidnapped by two white man and later found slain, after he reportedly whistled at white woman in Greenwood, Miss. About 50,000 persons viewed the body at chapel here late September 2 and early September 3.
15. Mrs. Mamie Bradley Watches as Her Son is Lowered into the Ground
Source:Getty(Original Caption) Friends restrain grief-stricken Mrs. Mamie Bradley (left) as her son’s body is lowered into the grave after a four day, open casket funeral. The 15-year old Negro youngster, Emmett Till, was shot and clubbed to death last week in Greenwood, Mississippi. He is believed to have been murdered for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Two men have confessed kidnapping the youth by deny killing him.
Deputy sheriff searching the crowd gathered in the courtroom at the start of the trial of Roy Bryant and John Milan for murdering Emmett Till in 1955, in a controversial case in which the accused men were acquitted, Sumner, Mississippi, September 1, 1955. (Photo by Afro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images)
17. Mamie Bradley Crying at Funeral
Source:Getty (Original Caption) Chicago: Mrs. Mamie Bradley, mother of Emmett Till, 14, who was found slain in Mississippi where he was on vacation, is near hysteria as she attends funeral services here. Till was found with bullet through head after two white men had kidnapped him.
Source:Getty Mrs Mamie Bradley (center) reacts as the body of her son, Emmett Till, is lowered into his grave during the funeral, September 1955. Her son, fourteen year old Emmett Till, was shot and murdered in Greenwood, Mississippi.
19. U.S. Senate Apologizes For Failure To Enact Anti-Lynching Legislation
CHICAGO – JUNE 13: Leon Smith examines photographs from the funeral of Emmett Till at the Chicago Historical Society June 13, 2005 in Chicago, Illinois. The “Without Sanctuary” exhibit features a collection of lynching photographs and other memorabilia. The Senate today is expected to apologize for its past failures to pass a law stop lynching, a crime that cost the lives of over 4,700 people, mostly blacks, between 1882 and 1968. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)
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