In the height of the Civil Rights Movement, violent outbreaks were sadly a common occurrence. While most of these deaths resulted from white aggression toward protesters, one murder stood out from all of the rest. The kidnapping and murder of fourteen year-old Emmett Till shook the nation with its grotesqueness. The young boy was spending a few weeks with family in Money, Mississippi when he was kidnapped and beaten to death after he had whistled at a white woman a few days prior. Some may wonder why this one incident is so significant, but its impact on the Civil Rights Movement and its effect on how safe the community felt was astronomical. But, despite the disappointment that came with Till’s trial, the Civil Rights Movement and the African American community only became stronger.

On August 24, 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till went out to a local drug store with his cousin in Money, Mississippi. While in the store, he whistled at a white woman; she found this offensive because the whistle came from an African American. Little did Till know that this one little mistake would end his life. Only three days later, Roy Bryant, the husband of the woman he whistled at, and another man entered Till’s cousin’s home in the middle of the night to kidnap the young boy. In the days following, Till’s body was found in the Tallahassee River, completely mutilated. In an interview, written by The New York Times, a woman describes Emmett’s body, saying that he had his “eyes gouged out and a hole in his head, is as vivid and horrifying as the famous photograph of his disfigured face published in Jet magazine, in which Emmett appears barely human” (Holden). Based on this description, as well as every other, Till’s murder is described as one of the most gruesome in Civil Rights history. In fact, his body was almost unidentifiable. The distorted body disturbed the nation when Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, decided to have an open-casket wake, and Jet Magazine took and published a photograph of the body. After seeing the horrifying image, the African American community became overwhelmed with even more fear than they had before.

The height of the Civil Rights Movement was in the 1950s. While African Americans were proudly fighting for their basic human rights, many were also living in fear. Throughout the movement, thousands of African Americans were arrested or killed for standing up for what they believed in. However, none of the deaths was as close to gruesome as Emmett Till’s. So many were heartbroken over the loss of this young boy's life, and for some, their loved ones even aided in removing Till’s body from the river, “Mrs. Jackson, 74, whose husband helped pull Emmett's mutilated body from the muddy river three days after his disappearance. ‘I'll never forget those times. There was so much fear, so much prejudice’” (Jacobs). Not only was Till’s murder traumatizing for Mrs. Jackson as an African American, but also because she had a firsthand experience with her husband’s account. As she mentioned, this point in time filled the nation with fear and prejudice was at an all time high. Due to this connection, Till’s death has even more of an impact than it originally did. But, the murder of Emmett Till only continued to force the African American community to live in utter fear.

While the rest of the nation was afraid for their life, the NAACP continued to fight for their rights and for the arrests of Till’s murder. However, they knew they would not have much luck. Much to their displeasure, the case was given an all-white jury, giving the murderers an advantage. Yet, this is not the first time Civil Rights organizations were seeing all-white, or conflicting juries in their cases. In the past, there were several others, “In 1994 in Jackson, Miss., a jury of eight blacks and four whites took six hours to convict Byron De La Beckwith, than 73, in the 1963 slaying of the civil rights leader Medgar Evers. Mr. Beckwith, a white segregationist, had been tried twice in 1964; both times the all-white juries had deadlocked” (Litchblau). The NAACP soon came to the realization that when the jury consisted of only whites, the decision was easily made because everyone agreed simply because they were all in favor of racial segregation. When the jury interracial, it would take them hours to come to a consensus because the whites would disagree with the African Americans. Knowing this popular trend, there was little hope for Till. Unfortunately, the jury let Till’s murderers off the hook, causing a major upset in the Civil Rights Movement.

Of course, the members of the Civil Rights organizations were incredibly disappointed in the outcome of the trial; however, they did not give up the fight. These organizations even received support from African American Mississippi Senator, David Jordan, who said in an interview, with the New York Times, ''‘As long as you go with the status quo, things are all right,’ he said. ''But when we push for change, the polarization comes again’'' (Jacobs). What Senator Jordan is trying to say is that as long as African Americans “go with the flow” everything will be okay for them, even if it means tolerating segregation, but that does not mean that they should stop fighting for what they believe in. Status quo is not morally the right way, and therefore, that is why the African American community will continue to fight for what is right and for basic human rights. Having this support from a government official aided the movement in a time when it was hindered and hope was lost.

Sixty-one years after such a tragic incident, people are still feeling the effects of Emmett Till’s murder. Just a few years ago, it was decided that Till’s body should be reevaluated in an autopsy and his case would be reopened. The charges against his murderers, that were originally dropped, were brought back and the men were arrested. So why all exhume the body all these years later? Is it possible that humans have evolved to the point where they can see that this action was disgustingly brutal and wrong? Perhaps; by exhuming the body, society has finally concluded that humans are better than that, that prejudice should be a word of the past, as well as racism and segregation. Nevertheless, this does not lessen the heartache of Emmett Till’s death nor does it hide the fact that humans are capable of such acts of hate. If it was not for the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, the story of Emmett Till might have been dusted under the carpet and his tragic story would not have served such importance in modern society.

Works Cited

Holden, Stephen. "Remembering a Boy, His Savage Murder and Racial Injustice in Mississippi." The New York Times. The New York Times, 16 Aug. 2005. Web. 16 May 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/17/movies/17emme.html>.

Jacobs, Andrew. "In Mississippi Delta Town, An Unwelcome Past Calls." The New York Times. The New York Times, 11 May 2004. Web. 16 May 2014. <

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/12/us/in-mississippi-delta-town-an-unwelcome-past- calls.html>.

Lichtblau, Eric, and Andrew Jacobs. "U.S. Reopens '55 Murder Case, Flashpoint of Civil Rights Era." The New York Times. The New York Times, 10 May 2004. Web. 16 May 2014. <http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/11/us/us-reopens-55-murder-case-flashpoint-of-civil- rights-era.html>.