How did Emmett Till change the world?
Emmett Louis Till was an African American boy who was kidnapped, tortured and lynched in Mississippi, United States of America on August 28, 1955. He was fourteen years old when the incident happened. He was born on July 25, 1941. In August 1955, he visited his relatives near Money, Mississippi during the summer vacation. While…
Emmett Louis Till was an African American boy who was kidnapped, tortured and lynched in Mississippi, United States of America on August 28, 1955.
He was fourteen years old when the incident happened. He was born on July 25, 1941.
In August 1955, he visited his relatives near Money, Mississippi during the summer vacation. While there, he was accused of flirting with a white woman by the name of Carolyn Bryant in a grocery store.
The interaction between Till and Bryant was said to have breached the “unwritten code of behaviour for a black male interacting with a white female in the Jim Crow-era South”.
After many days, Roy Bryant, husband of Carolyn, together with his half-brother, fully armed, kidnapped Till from his great-uncle’s house. They beat him and mutilated him and then shot him in the head. They then sunk his body in the Tallahatchie River.
How did Emmett Till change the world?
Posthumously, Emmett Till has been honoured as an icon of the civil rights movement. On March 29, 2022, President Joe Biden signed The Emmett Till Antilynching Act to be passed into law.
