R.I.P Emmett till

1955, Money Mississippi Emmet Till is visiting from Chicago when he decides to buy some gum from a mini mart. The shop was named Bryant’s grocery and meat mart. What happened next may have been one of the most influential things to kick off the civil rights movement. As hea paying for the gum he talks to the chequeout lady in a manor she found offensive and he husband Roy Bryant and her half brother kidnapp him 4 days later. They then torture and shoot him in the head and throw him in the river. 
We learnt about the civil rights movement event by event in chronological order so the murder Emmet till on August 28th was the first thing we learned about. We discovered the horror in the actions of Roy and J.W Milam. But things got a little more boring after that with not much else happening until the freedom rides in 61. That is not say people didn’t start talking about change. 

I think this lack of powerful movements was due to the fact that the south was ruled by fear. Lynch mobs roamed the streets at night and racist police officers by day. This is way it took so long for people to stand up and say enough. Fear is what white citizens in the south relied on to keep African Americans in check, that is why they were so surprised when a 14 year old boy challenges that fear just by whistling. The two murderers Roy and J.W were so caught up in tradition that they took it to far by torturing and killing Emmet just to maintain this fear. 
The older man playing checkers with Till’s cousin seemed to know what would happen if he whistled at the white girl and warned against it. He had experienced a life time of racism in the south while Emmet had experienced the north. This left him unaware of the segregation in the south. After his body was found by two young kids in the river strapped to part of a cotton Jin his mother decide to hold an open casket funeral in Chicago. This became one of the most famous funerals ever because of all the publicity that his mother employed by sending pictures of Emmett’s disfigured body to the newspaper.
The story of Emmett Till is truly a story one of good versus evil of right and wrong. Which is why I made this picture in the style of my French Revolution post from last year.