workingclasshistory:

On this day, 28 August 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy, was brutally murdered by two white men in Mississippi. He was accused of propositioning a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, and dubbed a “wolf-whistler” by media outlets like the Washington Post. Bryant’s husband and his half-brother then kidnapped, tortured and shot him in the head. The men were put on trial for murder but despite overwhelming evidence of their guilt, they were acquitted by an all-white jury, in which Black people were barred from participating. The murderers later proudly admitted their guilt, and sold their story to a magazine for $4000. According to author Timothy Tyson, Bryant herself later admitted that her court testimony about Till’s advances was a lie. At Till’s funeral, his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley made the decision to have an open casket, so that everyone could see the mutilated remains of what had been his face. His killing and the acquittal of the murderers provoked national outrage, and gave added impetus to the civil rights movement. In particular it inspired Rosa Parks’ act of defiance exactly 100 days later, who later recounted that she “thought about Emmett Till, and… couldn’t go back [to the back of the bus].”
In 2008 a historical marker was erected to Till in Mississippi. It was destroyed by white racists, as were two replacement markers. In late 2019, the latest memorial which was riddled with bullet holes was replaced by a 500 lb steel sign covered with bulletproof glass. https://www.facebook.com/workingclasshistory/photos/a.296224173896073/1513422575509554/?type=3