As Emmett Till
was leaving Chicago to visit relatives in Mississippi,
his mother Mamie warned him to be respectful to the
white man and always defer to him in every social
situation. Emmett, being your average teenager and
not being privy to the social climate in the South,
thought his mother to be overreacting. While
Emmett was in Mississippi he and another young man were
in a local general store. Emmett thought it would
be funny to speak to the owner's wife in a familiar
manner. Some say that he whistled at the woman,
others, that he said simply "bye, baby" as he left the
store. A couple of days later the woman's husband
and his brother-in-law abducted Emmett from where he was
staying They beat him severely including
gouging out one of his eyes before they shot him in the
head. They then tied a 75 lb. fan to his neck and
threw him in the Tallahatchie river. When Emmett
Till's body was finally discovered he was so badly
disfigured that he was unrecognizable. He was
identified by a ring that he wore. His mother
insisted on an open casket so that the world could see
what had been done to her son. A picture of
Emmett's body was published in Jet magazine and it sent
shock waves across the country. It was a major
event in getting the civil rights movement under way.
Four months later Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat
on a bus to a white man. The men responsible for
Emmett's murder were acquitted by a white jury.
Mamie Till continued to be active in the civil rights
movement up until her death. She is buried in Burr
Oak Cemetery in Chicago a few hundred feet from where
her son rests.
Emmitt's story
was once again in the news recently. The
government of Mississippi had erected signs in
commemoration of Emmitt and as something of an apology
for the wrong done him. The signs were torn down
by vandals. For those who feel that civil rights
have been achieved by all and that racism is a thing of
the past, they need only listen to these latest
developments and those of other recent events, such as
the murder of James Byrd in 1998. There is still a
long way to go. We have included the death photos
of Emmitt to continue the idea started by his mother.
One must look the reality of hatred square in the eye.
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