28 Aug 1955 Jahr - Emmett Tills Murder

Beschreibung:

While visiting relatives in Mississippi, Emmett Till has an encounter with a Carolyn Bryant - during which she alleges he whistled at her and touched her inappropriately. Details on what Till did and did not do are unclear, as there were no witnesses, but nonetheless, That's what Bryant told her husband, Roy, had happened when he returned home from a trip three days later. Imbued with rage, Roy and his brother J.W. Milam, broke into the home where Till was staying in the dead of night and abducted him at gunpoint. Till was savagely beaten, shot in the head and tossed into the Tallahatchie River, weighed down by a 75-pound fan they tied about his neck. When his body was recovered three days later, the only means of identifying him was a monogrammed ring on his finger as his face was rendered unrecognizable.

Tills killers were acquitted by an all-male all-white jury, as women and African Americans weren't allowed to serve as jurors in 1955 Mississippi.

Emmett Till's mother insisted on an open-casket funeral, during which thousands were invited to gaze upon her son's mutilated face and recon with the ugliness and unsung perils of racism in America. Images of her son's mangled body were published in Jet magazine and The Chicago Defender and it's not long till the acquittal sparks international outrage.

Carolyn Bryant later recanted her allegations.

Zugefügt zum Band der Zeit:

Datum:

Abbildungen: