On this day in 1955: 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered for whistling at a white woman, one of the key events leading up to the civil rights movement.
Emmett, from Chicago, was vacationing in Money, Miss. He showed some boys a picture of a white girl and bragged that she was his girlfriend, so his friends dared him to talk to a white woman in the country store. Emmett went in and bought some candy. As he left, he said, “Bye baby” to Carolyn Bryant, the wife of the store owner.
Recommended Stories
A few days later, two men came to the cabin of Emmett’s uncle. Roy Bryant, the owner of the store, and J.W. Milam, his brother-in-law, drove off with Emmett. Three days later, Emmett Till’s body was found in the Tallahatchie River. One eye was gouged out, and his crushed-in head had a bullet in it.
The all-white jury deliberated for just over an hour, then returned a “not guilty” verdict. The foreman later said that the state failed to identify the body.
