Last year, a court decided not to charge Carolyn Bryant with complicity in the Mississippi kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who has become a poignant symbol of the struggle for civil rights. Originally from Chicago, young Emmett had traveled to this Deep South state to visit family members.
Carolyn Bryant, then 21 years old, had assured that he had whistled her and had tried to grope her when she met her in a grocery store. As a result of his accusations, the teenager was kidnapped. His body, horribly mutilated, was found 72 hours later in a river. Emmett Till’s mother had demanded that his casket remain open at his funeral, so that the world would realize the abuse he had endured. Photos of the unrecognizable body have gone down in history.
A lie
Arrested for the murder, Roy Bryant – the husband of Carolyn Bryant – and JW Milam, his half-brother, had been acquitted by an all-white jury. Protected by this verdict, the two white men then told a magazine how they had killed the teenager. They are now deceased. Seven decades after the fact, the murder of Emmett Till is still considered a central catalyst for the civil rights movement.
2023-04-27 19:51:31
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