Emmett Till Biography
Authored by Angela Coleman in Celebrities
Published on 09-07-2009
Emmett Till was a 14-year old African-American teenager whose story is one of the most tragic events to happen in modern American history.
He was born Emmett Louis Till in Chicago, Illinois on July 25, 1941. His parents were Louis Till and Mamie Carthan Till. While in the Army, his father was executed for rape and murder in Italy, although his family was not informed as to the specifics of his death. They also experienced difficulties due to Emmett’s bout with polio. Though he later recovered, the condition left him with a speech impediment.
Emmett’s mother’s roots were in Mississippi. In August of 1956, she decided to send her son to Money, Mississippi to stay briefly with relatives there. This was during a time when the South was segregated and there were strict codes of behavior expected of African-Americans by whites. Mamie Till explained to “Bobo,” as Emmett was nicknamed, about these matters and warned him to be cautious while down South.
Unfortunately, the boy failed to heed his mother’s advice.
Emmett Till accompanied a group of other teens on August 24, 1955 to a white-owned store in the small Mississippi town he was sent to. Reportedly, the other teens urged him to flirt with Carolyn Bryant, who co-owned the store with her husband Roy. Taking them up on their dare, Emmett offended the white woman by allegedly wolf-whistling at her. Although he left the store, Bryant told her husband that Till had used inappropriate language in her presence, asked her for a date and put his arm around her.
Furious, Roy Bryant, along with wife Carolyn and half-brother JW Milam , allegedly drove to the home where Emmett Till was staying. On August 28, 1955, he was kidnapped and driven off in a pickup truck. He was then brutally beaten and shot to death. His bloated corpse was later found in the Tallahatchie River by two fishermen. It was weighted down by a cotton gin fan. The 14-year-old’s body was in such horrid condition that it could only be identified by a ring his mother had gifted him with.
Mamie insisted in having an open-coffin funeral in a public setting, so that the world could see the savagery done by those who killed her son. Photographs of Emmett’s body had such an emotional impact that they helped fuel the intensity of the Civil Rights Movement in America.
He was buried in Alsip, Illinois at the Burr Oak Cemetery.
Although Roy Bryant and his half-brother were tried for the murder of Emmett Till, they were acquitted by an all white, all male jury, which caused much anger in the African-American community. Afterwards, they confessed to the crime during a shocking Look magazine interview, but were never penalized. Both men became social pariahs in their town following the murder trial and both were later felled by cancer.
Emmett Till’s mother Mamie continued to remind the world of his murder and the hatred behind it until she died at 81-years-old in 2003.
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I beleive that Emett “Bobo” Till did not deserve to die. His murder started a movement known world wide and I picked Emett Till to be the best person for me to write a report on and announce it in front of my whole School and visitors in Febuary at our Black history month program. I beleive Emett Till did not mean any harm at all, not never will I change my thought, felling, nor Judgement about it. Emett Till was a young man who had over come Polio as as a young man and who was brutally murder for a (VERY FOOLISH) reason, such as whistling at a white women.
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I am reading Mississippi Trail 1955. It’s about Emmett Till and it made me want to learn more about Emmett Till. He DID NOT deserve to die and it’s a very sad story to read because this should not have happened. But who am I to tell i have never lived in a segregated place before and I never will!
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Emmet till death was the start of a moment that help other black american understand how unfair the law was to any other color race but white. Emmet Till was wrongfully killed not mainly because of him whistling at a white woman but was killed of his color of hit skin. if you really look at, let say Emmit was a young white male and he whistled at the white lady would he had been bruitly murdered the I think NOT.
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he died due to us white people’s ethocentrism thoughts and actions. us white people did not do what we were taught to by the church. Everyone is equal. well i guess we thought that didnt mean anything about blacks, asians, middle easterns, jews, muslims, hidus, native americans, and all the others we scrutinized!
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It was not in the August of 1956, it was 1955. He was also murdered on August 25, 1955.
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This kid did not deserve to die. But on the other hand, it was pretty stupid to whistle to some white girl that would certainly overreact. I am not sympathizing with those white men who killed Emmett, but you need to remember this is Jim Crow South. All these racist people in Money, Mississippi would have certainly taken offense to a black kid whistling to their white broad. So yes, I believe Emmett’s death should not have happened. But it triggered a chain reaction that changed the world as we know it.
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