Early the next day Roy Bryant, the husband of the cashier, and J.W. Milam barged in to Till house and abducted Emmett at gunpoint. They drove him around town until they found a spot to take care of business. They tortured Emmett by removing an eye then shooting him in the head. To rid of the body Bryant tied Till to a large metal fan and threw him into the Tallahatchie river.
Emmett Till's corpse was found 3 days later by a few fisherman. Till's body was in such bad condition the only way the family could identify him was because of a ring Emmett's mom gave the him.
Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were arrested and tried in court in front of an all white jury. After just over a hour of deliberating the jury came to a conclusion of not guilty. The jury stated that there wasn't enough evidence that the body was in fact Emmett.
Just a few days after the murder Emmett's mom was able to see the body for the first time. The broke down in tears because of the condition Emmett was in. She decided to have an open-casket funeral so the entire world could see how racist the south is.
Emmett Till's death was a major spark in the Civil Rights Movement. Just 3 months after Till was murdered Rosa Parks was arrested for not giving up her seat to a white man on a bus. She later told an interviewer that when the bus driver asked her exit the bus she had Emmett Till on her mind.
Works Cited
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"Emmett Till." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 11 Jan. 2010. school.eb.com/levels/high/article/Emmett-Till/473787. Accessed 30 Mar. 2017.
History.com Staff. "The Death of Emmett Till." History.com. A&E Television Networks, 2010. Web. 29 Mar. 2017.
Kaplan, Rich. "Emmett till Murder." The American Mosaic: The African American Experience, ABC-CLIO, 2017, Africanamerican.abc-clio.com/Search/Display/1501746. Accessed 21 Mar. 2017.
Mechanic, Michael. "Author John Edgar Wideman Grapples with America's Ghosts-and His Own." Mother Jones. N.p., 12 Nov. 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
"The Murder of Emmett Till- Emmett Till's Funeral." PBS LearningMedia. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.
"The Murder Of Emmett Till Happened On This Day In 1955." Face2face Africa. N.p., 26 Mar. 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
"The Murder Of Emmett Till Happened On This Day In 1955." Face2face Africa. N.p., 26 Mar. 2016. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
Ron. "Preserving The Historic Emmett Till Landmark: Roy Bryant's Store." Preserving The Historic Emmett Till Landmark: Roy Bryant's Store. N.p., 01 Jan. 1970. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.
Yearian, Mark. "Emmett Till." Getty Images. N.p., 10 July 2010. Web. 30 Mar. 2017.
