The Kidnapping and Murder of Emmett Till

The Kidnapping and Murder of Emmett Till

The murder of Emmett Till shocked the deep “Old South. The incident is centered on Emmett Till and his murder. The murder of Till was a horrible case. Emmett Louis Till was born July 25, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois. He was given the nickname “Bobo”. Mose Wright, Till’s uncle, decided that he wanted to take Emmett and Wheeler Parker with him to Mississippi to visit. On August 19, 1955 the day before Emmett Till left to go to Mississippi, his mother gave him a ring that belonged to his father engraved with the initials T.L. The next day she drove Emmett to the train station. That was the last time Mamie Till saw her son. It took Emmett three days to arrive to Money, Mississippi. Money Mississippi was a real racist town. Money, Mississippi became infamous during the Civil Rights Movement after Till’s brutal murder. Till’s murder showed the reality of racism in Money, Mississippi. Till and some of his relatives decided to go to this store to buy some things. The store was owned by Roy and Carolyn Bryant who were Caucasians. On August 24, 1955, Emmett and his cousins along with friends went to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market to buy some refreshments. It was said that Emmett went to the store and bought bubble gum, whistle, flirted, and touched the hand of the store white female clerk which was Carolyn Bryant, the wife of Roy Bryant.

Four days later on August 28, 1955, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam kidnapped Emmett Till from Mose Wright House at some point in time. Bryant and Milam beat Till, shot Till in the head, and tied a large metal fan that had barbed wire around his neck. Bryant and Milam threw Till’s body into the Tallahatchie River. A seventeen- year- old white boy named Robert Hodges, was fishing in the Tallahatchie River and saw a pair of knees sticking out of the shallow water. Robert was not sure what he had found, so he contacted the Tallahatchie County Police Department. When the Police arrive...