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In August of 1955, Emmett Till was a lively, clever, street-smart 14-year-old from Chicago who arrived in rural Mississippi to spend time with his mother's relatives. He was fond of humor, liked to wear flashy clothes, enjoyed being around people, and was known to be a happy-go-lucky youth. The story goes that while he was in a store, he whistled at a white woman, the wife of storeowner Roy Bryant, who was not present. The woman, Carolyn Bryant, testified later under oath that Emmett asked her for a date, made crude gestures, chased her, grabbed her by the waist with both hands, and used obscene language, until one of his cousins ran in and pulled him out of the store.
The facts of what actually happened in the store will probably never be fully known, as several historians have pointed out (Anderson, Whitfield). But it seems clear that most of Carolyn Bryant's story was not true. Whatever did happen in the store, the results were hideous indeed. A few days later, in the dead of night, Roy Bryant and his halfbrother, J. W. Milam, apprehended Emmett in front of his family, sat him down between themselves in an old pick-up truck, drove him away to a secluded area, and murdered him. The police investigation was bungled, and the subsequent murder trial became a national laughingstock. Reporter James Hicks said of the trial, "The laxity of the courtroom was something you couldn't imagine. I mean, they drank beer in the jury box." The jury's deliberations lasted only 67 minutes, but they did not even need that much time. As one of the jurists famously remarked, "If we hadn't stopped to drink pop, it wouldn't have taken that long" (Whitfield 42).
The verdict of innocence sent shock waves through the African American community, especially in the south. Civil rights leader Marion A. Wright stated a year later that "The shot that blew out his brains is heard round the world" (286). Photos of the defendants brazenly leaving the courthouse were reprinted throughout the nation. Even though they were never convicted, it was common knowledge that Bryant and Milam committed the crime, especially due to their smug, highly-publicized confessions in Look magazine several months later. As time passed,...