Emmett-Till

Shelby Willis Ayana Hodges



Emmett Louis Till July 5, 1951-August 8, 1955

Chicago in 1955 still was divided as far as races were concerned, but no where near as racist as Mississippi. Emmett Till, an African-American fourteen year old boy, was raised in Chicago, went south to visit his relatives in Money, Mississippi. Although he was warned by his parents to stay away and not to talk to white folks, Emmett wasn't aware of how different these towns were. August 13 a African-American activist, Lamar Smith, was shot to death in Brookhaven, Mississippi. Another death occurred just a few weeks before Emmett Till came to Money, Mississippi; a black girl was beaten for “crowding” a white woman in a local store. On Wednesday night of August 24th Emmett and his cousins were seated on the front porch of Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market playing a friendly game of checkers, Emmett started telling stories of life up North, to aid his story he flashes picture insisting on saying the white girl in the picture was his girlfriend.
 * BACK GROUND/OVERVIEW: **

One of the boys in the group laughed and said, "There's a pretty little white woman in there in the store. Since you Chicago cats know so much about white girls, let's see you go in there and get a date with her." A joke turned into dare, and Emmett accepted the challenge. When Witnesses allegedly reported that when Emmett was walking away he turned and yelled “Bye, baby.” Emmett Till died a cruel death three days after this incident. **WHERE:** In Money, Mississippi, everything was segregated by the Jim Crow Laws. Jim Crow Laws were a series of anti-black laws that prevented blacks from being equal to whites. These laws were state and local laws put in place from around 1976 through 1965.
 * [[image:phillipsmodernamerica/01_till_04.jpg align="left"]]WHO: **Ray Bryant was Mrs. Bryant’s husband he was out of town when his wife was “disrespected.” Ray Bryant made it a priority to find the boy and put him in place as soon as he got back from his trip, after his wife told him about the incident. To help instill fear into the boy he brought one of his friends, J.W. Milam to help put the boy in check. Ray Bryant and J.W. Milam’s intentions were clear, they wanted to assure Emmett would never hit on a white woman ever again.

__Examples of Jim Crow Laws: __
 * Seperate entry doors and seating in movie theatres.
 * Poll Taxes and literacy tests in order to qualify to vote.
 * Seating in the back of the bus, or separate train cars and waiting rooms.
 * Seperate dining facilities.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate bathroom facilities.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate water fountains.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate churches.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate hotels, and bank tellers. [[image:https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/PhJLBYJR1OlAwP7mswjxdTvk2ol0SY772UnUXVbBBNYGZ2A0JztYMnnzH3Xh-29FzUm_7bci3NxoZI_96OlWs5NiRZTzQa3qtsWRpABUEdy9ouPWwxQ align="right"]]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate public and State parks.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate schools and books could not be interchanged.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate Doctors, Hospitals, graveyards and undertakers.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Curfews.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">A ban on mixed-race dating and marriage, and mixed marriages declared illegal.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate public phone booths, ball parks and ballpark seating. [[image:https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/nPIUa25aV01WiL_UI1FU-HnEm_qBYApd0w6esFQf6k2s0H1OJebM6vlEY0X2SqbrIIYkB4fk1X0uoBS3tq1qS8fX1b7Qf84lWUK98JK8ZZka4ZaH0mU align="right"]]
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate areas in public libraries.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Seperate jails and prisons.

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Read more: <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #003399; font-family: Verdana; font-size: 12px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[|http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_are_some_examples_of_the_Jim_Crow_laws#ixzz1wGMsYbSw]

<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">get a white woman. The brothers felt that Emmett had to be put in his place. Majority of the whites in the south would side with Ray Bryant and J.W. Milam felt that the Jim Crow laws were there for a reason. Jim Crow Laws were a system of unofficial laws to keep the south segregated. They restricted African-Am <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ericans and told them what they could and could not do. <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">**HOW:** The tied up his cousin and kidnapped Emmet. They took him to a shed, they then beat him with their pistols, shot him, gouged out one of his eyes, tied him up firmly with barb wire to a 75 pound fan and rolled him off the bank of a river.
 * <span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">WHY: **<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"> Ray Bryant felt that he had to defend his wife, and a negro had no place to feel like he c [[image:https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/QLiUFYuJy7ILKuywNafrL7xfKK1hsMJvaIEKJRGttF9FrioR5R6Wln3CK_qfPcEhnFgWHXR2VeC0eMNEo1lmTSsg1NI8gvFBrMCWtvaw9HXpFtmaXiM align="right"]]<span style="background-color: transparent; color: #000000; font-family: Arial; font-size: 15px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ould ever

'Twas down in Mississippi not so long ago, When a young boy from Chicago walked through a Southern door. This boy's fateful tragedy you should all remember well, The color of his skin was black and his name was Emmett Till.
 * __**DEATH OF EMMETT TILL- BOB DYLAN LYRICS**__

Some men they dragged him to a barn and there they beat him up. They said they had a reason, but I disremember what. They tortured him and did some things too evil to repeat. There was screaming sounds inside the barn, there was laughing sounds out on the street.

Then they rolled his body down a gulf amidst a blood-red rain And they threw him in the waters wide to cease his screaming pain. The reason that they killed him there, and I'm sure it was no lie, Was just for the fun of killin' him and to watch him slowly die. ('cause he was born a black skinned boy, he was born to die) And then to stop the United States of yelling for a trial, Two brothers they confessed that they had killed poor Emmett Till. But on the jury there were men who helped the brothers commit this awful crime, And so this trial was a mockery, but nobody seemed to mind.

I saw the morning papers but I could not bear to see The smiling brothers walkin' down the courthouse stairs. For the jury found them innocent and the brothers they went free, While Emmett's body floats the foam of a Jim Crow southern sea.

If you can't speak out against this kind of thing, a crime that's so unjust || media type="youtube" key="ywc3YFeMiYE" height="315" width="560" align="center"

Your eyes are filled with dead men's dirt, your mind is filled with dust. Your arms and legs they must be in shackles and chains, and your blood it must refuse to flow, For you let this human race fall down so God-awful low!

This song is just a reminder to remind your fellow man That this kind of thing still lives today in that ghost-robed Ku Klux Klan. But if all us folks that thinks alike, if we gave all we could give, We could make this great land of ours a greater place to live. ||