The trial that started it all |
On August 28, 1955, " two white men beat to death Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African-American boy from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi." Till had apparently flirted with the white wife of one of the murderers at a local grocery store called "Bryant's." At Till's public funeral in Chicago,pictures were shown across the nation, thousands saw Till's severely mutilated body, drawing attention to the problem that blacks civil rights have been 100% violated in the deep south for many years.
Bryant and Milam were tried for the murder of till in late 1955, "but acquitted by an all-white Mississippi jury." Protected by the double jeopardy clause, Bryant and Milam admitted killing Till in a 1956 magazine interview. The widely publicized trial is considered a pivotal event in the Civil Rights Movement. |
Caption: here is a clip that goes in depth of the Emmett Till story
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