I remember sitting at my desk in high school whenever we were talking about segregation in this country. I remember thinking that it was obviously ridiculous for other groups of people to be oppressed and looked down upon just because of the color of their skin. I remember learning about Rosa Parks and how she didn't want to give up her bus seat. I remember learning about Emmett Till, and how his life was cut short by the hands of two violent white men and a horrible lie.
The story of Emmett Till is one of great tragedy and violence. Like many African-Americans in our modern day society, Emmett was targeted for the color of his skin and beat to death without any jail time for his murderers. Emmett Till was only 14 years old when he was murdered by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, who beat Till to death after Bryant's wife, Carolyn, told the two men that Till had come into the store and groped her, among other inappropriate behaviors. Enraged that a black teenager had ''whistled at his wife,'' Bryant thought that the logical course of action at the time would be to kidnap Till, beat him senseless, shoot him, then dump his body in the river.
But Emmett Till's 'victim' wouldn't come forward with the truth until nearly six decades later.
Carolyn Bryant, the woman who was alone in the store at the time that Emmett had come in, is now 82, and her husband who had committed the foul crime is long dead. During an interview in 2007, a decade ago, Timothy Tyson sat down with the alleged 'victim' to set the record straight on what happened that night. Bryant admitted that Till had indeed come into the store, but on the grounds of the black teenager groping and saying inappropriate phrases, she simply states, "that part’s not true." Till went into the store to buy two cents worth of gum, possibly to give to the boys that were playing checkers across the street. It can't be decided if Till was whistling to Carolyn Bryant, or if he was whistling to the boys that were still playing in the street. This fact, to this day, has never been proven.
Carolyn even admitted to Tyson that she ''couldn't remember the details of what happened that night at her husband's store.'' If this is true, then why was her testimony heard in the first place? She told the jury that she was ''scared for her life," and that she was indeed frightened by the young boy. A young boy that didn't have any weapons on him, and that bought two cents worth of gum. A young boy who was visiting from Chicago, who was staying with relatives. A young boy whose life was cut short based off of a lie.
Tell me, doesn't this seem all too familiar?
