What happened Sheriff Strider?
In the Emmett Till case of 1955, Mississippi sheriff Clarence Strider became an iconic representation of the region’s stubbornness. Strider was the first authority to find out that a body had been found in the Tallahatchie River by a young fisherman. He even instructed Emmett Till’s Mississippi relatives to bury the body by dusk in…
In the Emmett Till case of 1955, Mississippi sheriff Clarence Strider became an iconic representation of the region’s stubbornness. Strider was the first authority to find out that a body had been found in the Tallahatchie River by a young fisherman. He even instructed Emmett Till’s Mississippi relatives to bury the body by dusk in order to bury it as soon as possible. However, Emmett’s mother in Chicago ordered that the body be sent back when she learned of his discovery.
Strider promised the local media that the situation would be looked into, but after receiving criticism and attention from throughout the country, he decided otherwise.
Strider ruled the courtroom with an iron fist and forbade African American journalists from attending the trial of Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J. W. Milam. Strider separated them from the white journalists and set them at a card table off to the side of the courtroom after Judge Curtis Swango overruled him. Then, when Congressman Charles Diggs, an African American, arrived from Detroit, Strider forbade him entry.
What happened Sheriff Strider?
Strider took the uncommon step of giving testimony for the defense during the course of the trial. He questioned the accuracy of Emmett’s body’s identification, claiming that it had been submerged for too long to determine whether it belonged to a white or a black person. Strider further asserted that the body discovered in the Tallahatchie was not that of a 14-year-old child, but rather an adult. Emmett Till was still alive and well and living in Detroit with his grandfather, according to this witness, supporting the defense’s major line of defense.
Strider commended the defendants in front of the public once the verdict was made known.
