TIMELINE OF IMPORTANT EVENTS:
Here is the link to the website to see the full timeline within Emmett Tills life - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/timeline/index.html
August 19: A day before her son is to leave for a summer stay with family in Mississippi, Mamie Till gives Emmett the ring once owned by his father, Louis Till. It is inscribed with the initials L.T.
August 20: Mamie Till rushes her son Emmett to the 63rd Street station in Chicago to catch the southbound train to Money, Mississippi.
August 21: Emmett Till arrives in Money, Mississippi, and goes to stay at the home of his great uncle Moses Wright.
August 31: Three days later, Emmett Till's decomposed corpse is pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Moses Wright identifies the body from a ring with the initials L.T.
September 3: Emmett Till's body is taken to Chicago's Roberts Temple Church of God for viewing and funeral services. Emmett's mother decides to have an open casket funeral. Thousands of Chicagoans wait in line to see Emmett's brutally beaten body.
September 6: Emmett Till is buried at Burr Oak Cemetery.The same day, a grand jury in Mississippi indicts Milam and Bryant for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. They both plead innocent. They will be held in jail until the start of the trial.
September 17: The black newspaper The Chicago Defender publishes photographs of Till's corpse.
September 19: The kidnapping and murder trial of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant opens in Sumner, Mississippi, the county seat of Tallahatchie County. Jury selection begins and, with blacks and white women banned from serving, an all-white, 12-man jury made up of nine farmers, two carpenters and one insurance agent is selected.
September 20: Judge Curtis Swango recesses the court to allow more witnesses to be found. It is the first time in Mississippi history that local law enforcement, local NAACP leaders and black and white reporters team up to locate sharecroppers who saw Milam's truck and overheard Emmett being beaten
September 21: Moses Wright, Emmett Till's great uncle, does the unthinkable -- he accuses two white men in open court. While on the witness stand, he stands up and points his finger at Milam and Bryant, and accuses them of coming to his house and kidnapping Emmett.
September 23: Milam and Bryant are acquitted of murdering Emmett Till after the jury deliberates only 67 minutes. One juror tells a reporter that they wouldn't have taken so long if they hadn't stopped to drink pop. Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam stand before photographers, light up cigars and kiss their wives in celebration of the not guilty verdict.
November 9: Returning to Mississippi one last time, Moses Wright and Willie Reed testify before a LeFlore County grand jury in Greenwood, Mississippi. The grand jury refuses to indict Milam or Bryant for kidnapping. The two white men go free.
December 5: One hundred days after Emmett Till's murder, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus, launching the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and the civil rights movement. The boycott will last 381 days.
Here is the link to the website to see the full timeline within Emmett Tills life - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/timeline/index.html
August 19: A day before her son is to leave for a summer stay with family in Mississippi, Mamie Till gives Emmett the ring once owned by his father, Louis Till. It is inscribed with the initials L.T.
August 20: Mamie Till rushes her son Emmett to the 63rd Street station in Chicago to catch the southbound train to Money, Mississippi.
August 21: Emmett Till arrives in Money, Mississippi, and goes to stay at the home of his great uncle Moses Wright.
August 31: Three days later, Emmett Till's decomposed corpse is pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Moses Wright identifies the body from a ring with the initials L.T.
September 3: Emmett Till's body is taken to Chicago's Roberts Temple Church of God for viewing and funeral services. Emmett's mother decides to have an open casket funeral. Thousands of Chicagoans wait in line to see Emmett's brutally beaten body.
September 6: Emmett Till is buried at Burr Oak Cemetery.The same day, a grand jury in Mississippi indicts Milam and Bryant for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. They both plead innocent. They will be held in jail until the start of the trial.
September 17: The black newspaper The Chicago Defender publishes photographs of Till's corpse.
September 19: The kidnapping and murder trial of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant opens in Sumner, Mississippi, the county seat of Tallahatchie County. Jury selection begins and, with blacks and white women banned from serving, an all-white, 12-man jury made up of nine farmers, two carpenters and one insurance agent is selected.
September 20: Judge Curtis Swango recesses the court to allow more witnesses to be found. It is the first time in Mississippi history that local law enforcement, local NAACP leaders and black and white reporters team up to locate sharecroppers who saw Milam's truck and overheard Emmett being beaten
September 21: Moses Wright, Emmett Till's great uncle, does the unthinkable -- he accuses two white men in open court. While on the witness stand, he stands up and points his finger at Milam and Bryant, and accuses them of coming to his house and kidnapping Emmett.
September 23: Milam and Bryant are acquitted of murdering Emmett Till after the jury deliberates only 67 minutes. One juror tells a reporter that they wouldn't have taken so long if they hadn't stopped to drink pop. Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam stand before photographers, light up cigars and kiss their wives in celebration of the not guilty verdict.
November 9: Returning to Mississippi one last time, Moses Wright and Willie Reed testify before a LeFlore County grand jury in Greenwood, Mississippi. The grand jury refuses to indict Milam or Bryant for kidnapping. The two white men go free.
December 5: One hundred days after Emmett Till's murder, Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat on a city bus, launching the Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott and the civil rights movement. The boycott will last 381 days.