How Did Emmett Till Influence The Civil Rights Movement

Spending time with family in Money, Mississippi, 14 year old, African American, Emmett Till, from Chicago, was ruthlessly killed for harmlessly flirting with a Caucasian woman four days prior. His assailants, the Caucasian woman’s significant other and her brother, made Emmett convey a 75 pound cotton gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and demanded him to remove his garments. The two—then beat him almost to near death, dredged his eye out, fired a bullet into his head, and after that proceeded to toss his body, attached to the cotton gin fan with spiked metal, into the waterway.

In the Mississippi during the 1950’s American history was filled with extreme racism. They judge individuals on the shade of their skin and what they look like. Emmett till was just a young 14-year-old teenage boy who didn’t know or understand racism. Africa American’s never had police on their side they were simply forgotten and missed treated. Violence in the south was ignored because nobody wanted to get involved and become a target. Emmet till death spark national attention and because of that the civil rights movement happened given equal opportunity. He changed the way people think about racial problems.

In August of 1955, a 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till traveled from his hometown, Chicago, to Money, Mississippi, to visit his great uncle, Mose Wright. Emmett was used to the laws in the north, and did not know that it was illegal to talk to a white person. So when his friends dared him to go into a shop and say bye to a white woman, he took the dare. Four days later, Emmett was taken and killed by the woman’s husband and his brother-in-law. The pair of them demanded to see the boy, and despite pleas from Mose, they forced Emmett into their car. Four days later, Emmett’s body was found beaten and lifeless in the Tallahatchie river. Emmett’s mother insisted on having an open-casket funeral, so the world could see what those mean had done to

“And the fact that Emmett Till, a young black man, could be found floating down the river in Mississippi, as, indeed, many had been done over the years, this set in concrete the determination of people to move forward.” —Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, Civil Rights Leader

The murder of Emmett Till made national and international headlines. Fifty thousand black people attended his funeral in

More and more rebellious acts and events started to occur. Mamie Till gave speeches about how she felt and described what she went through during the death and mourning process of her beloved son, Emmett Till. Hundreds and thousands assembled to hear her speak about getting justice for her son and for many others that never got the opportunity to seek justice (Beauchamp). The whole devastation of it all angered and hurt several. In 1955, a few months after the murder of Emmett Till, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man as she was commanded. (Jalon 1). She was arrested and jailed for her actions. After the Parks incident, many African Americans refused to use the bus for transportation which started what is known as the Montgomery Bus Boycott (McKissack 197). The news of the murder was not confined to that community. It was spread all over the country, reaching out to people in higher places. The story touched E. Frederic Morrow, the first African American to hold an executive position in the White House. Morrow says, “It certainly strengthened my hand in the day-to-day effort to get the Administration to speak out and do something on civil rights.” (Jalon 1). The death of Emmett Till was the spark the African American community needed to move ahead in life. It gave them a purpose as well as a reason to fight for what they

Emmett’s story brought attention to the intense racism in Mississippi. His impact on black america was even greater than that of the Brown decision. He prompted national outrage and sparked the Civil Rights Movement . Just 100 days after Emmett’s death, Rosa Parks decided not to give up her seat on the bus, which started the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Emmett's death should be remembered by the Civil Rights Movement. He was a very inspirational figure that let people know that people should be treated equally regardless to their

It was this significant event in history that sparked the Civil Rights Movement, changing lives of many throughout America: The murder of Emmett Till. Born on July 25, 1941 and raised in Chicago, Emmett Till was a rather jocund, high-spirited kid despite his rough childhood and the segregation against Negroes at the time. Till's great uncle, Moses Wright, travelled from Mississippi to visit family in Chicago, planning to take Till's cousin, Wheeler Parker, back to Mississippi with to visit relatives down south, but ended up bringing Emmett with. Reluctantly preparing to send her only child to Mississippi, Mamie gave her husband's valued and greatly cherished ring, engraved with the initials "L.T." to Emmett the day before his departure set

would go in two or three at a time to buy things, then come back out

“The only tired I was, was tired of giving in” (Parks). I was tired, tired of being oppressed, and tired of being stepped on by the law, and my fellow people. That was the only tired i felt. The Montgomery Bus protest sparked a fire that would be felt throughout the entire country, and it was the spark that ignited the fire of the civil rights movement that shook the world. The boycott was the first of it, once light was shown on the problem, she began travelling cross country spreading information about civil rights, and sparking more peaceful protest. Rosa Parks was an important figure that changed the direction of the United States of America. She was trying to get home from work that day, but she turned into an icon for the civil rights movement, and shined a light on the unfair treatment of african americans.

The South had many brutal beating and lynchings of African-Americans. One horrific event was Emmett Till. Emmett was a 14 year old African-American boy that was originally from Chicago, Illinois, but he was visiting family in Mississippi. He was in town with his cousins and they went into a drug store to get bubble gum. On their way out, Emmit “flirted” with the woman at the cash register by saying “Bye, baby.” The woman was extremely offended. Her husband was the owner of the store and he was on a business trip, when he returned home the woman told him about what had happened and he was furious. On the night of August 28, 1955, in the middle of the night, the man got the woman’s brother and they went to Emmett’s Great Uncle Mose Wright’s house where Emmett was staying. They forced Emmett into the car and drove him to the Tallahatchie River. The men forced him to carry a 75 pound cotton-gin fan to the river bank. Emmett was forced to remove his clothes and the men beat him nearly to death. They brutally gouged out Emmett’s eye and shot him in the head. The cotton-gin fan was tied to the body and then thrown into the river. The body was found and recovered three days later on August 31, the body looked almost inhuman. The only way the body was identified as Emmett Till, was a ring that had been pasted down through the family that Emmett always worn. Till’s mother Mamie Bradley

“By refusing to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, city bus in 1955, black seamstress Rosa Parks (1913-2005) helped initiate the Civil Rights Movement in the United States (History.com Staff). On December 5, Rosa Parks was found guilty for her actions on the bus and was fined 10$, but her conviction just started a bigger movement. Because they arrested Rosa Parks, blacks from all over started to boycott and stopped going on public buses and

The article “ Emmett Till Biography” states that Emmett Till and a group of teenagers went to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market to purchase refreshments after working in the hot sun all day. The article then goes on to tell us that Emmett Till was accused of whistling at the store’s white female clerk, Carolyn Bryant. It was unacceptable for a black man to have any interactions with a white women and if this were to happen racial violence would be produced. This makes America wonder why Emmett Till acted the way he did. This angered many white people including Carolyn Bryant’s husband. The article “Emmett Till is Murdered” states that the white woman's husband and her brother made Emmett carry a seventy-five pound cotton-gin to the Tallahatchie River and then forced him take his clothes off. The article then goes on to tell us that the men beat him almost to death, gouged his eyes out, and then tied him to the cotton-gin and threw him into the river. This shows how racially violent people were in America during this time. This event brought people's attention to racial

Lynching revealed the treatment of black people in America and garnered support for the Civil Rights Movement. One of the most notable lynching in American history was the lynching of Emmett Till, in which the fourteen year old boy was abducted and brutally murdered in 1955. When Till’s killers were brought to trial, “an all-white jury acquitted Bryant and Milam after deliberation little more than an hour. A grand jury later refused to indict Bryant and Milam for kidnapping. In an article that appeared in Look magazine in 1956, the two men admitted that they had killed Till” (Mayer 1).

In conclusion, Emmett Till was a young boy who was born in a time that was rough for African Americans. Also, Christopher Metress is a published author and college professor whose ideas are linked with readers, worldwide. Sixty years later, at a time when race relations are once more at the front of the American mind, Till’s name is still adducing as a reminder of the worst consequences of ignoring the problem. Accidentally, his story has inspired a regeneration of historians and scholars. Everyone has the right to have happiness in life and should not be oppressed by discrimination.