The Story of Emmett Till
Emmett Till was mercilessly beat to death on August 27th, 1955 in the town of Summer, Mississippi. He suffered countless blows to the face with a pistol, got one of his eyes gouged out, and a gunshot pointblank in the head. What could lead to such an incident? Would you believe the reason was simply because he whistled at a white woman?
He was reportedly flirting with 21 year old white woman Carolyn Bryant. A couple nights later, Carolyn's husband, Roy, and his half brother, J.W. Milam arrived at Emmett's great uncle's house where they kidnapped him and took him to the Tallahatchi River where this horrific beating took place. To his death, Till still believed that he was equal to Bryant. Roy asked Emmett if he still felt like he was equal, to which Till said he was. Bryant shot him point blank in the head right there.
After some boys fishing discovered the body, the authorities wanted to bury him there in Mississippi with a closed casket. However, Emmett's mother wanted to bring him to Illinois and insisted on an open casket so everyone can view the horrors of racial inequality. It wasn't until after Emmett's mother threatened to open the casket with her own hands did the funeral director give in to opening it. Tens of thousands of people viewed the unforgetful corpse of Emmett Till.
No comments:
Post a Comment