Imagine seeing someone you love have pieces of dough placed inside of his eyeball sockets to resemble the eyes lost after suffering a brutal beating?
The loved ones of Emmett Till have.
The anniversary of one of America’s most highly publicized Civil-Rights-Era murders was recently remembered.
Aug. 28 marked the 50th anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till, a then 14-year-old Chicago teenager, who was severly beaten and shot after whistling at a white woman while visiting an uncle in Money, Miss.
Violence between blacks and whites wasn’t uncommon at the time, but Till’s age and the level of brutality separated it from the usual hate crime.
Beverly Bond, associate professor of history and director of the African and African-American studies program, said Till’s death helped open the eyes of the world to the struggle for civil rights.
“It made you think of the brutality of southern racism,” she said.
On Aug. 24, 1955, Till and a group of teenagers went to a store after a day of picking cotton. Before leaving the store, Till whistled at Carolyn Bryant, one of the store’s owners.
On Aug. 28, Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, and J.W. Milam, Bryant’s brother, kidnapped Till from his uncle’s home after learning of the incident.
The prevailing image etched in the minds of many is the photograph of Till lying in his casket during his funeral.
Till was beaten beyond recognition. The only way Till’s body could be identified was through his wearing a ring given to him by his mother, Mamie Till. The ring, which belonged to Till’s father, Louis Till, had the initials L.T. inscribed. Till received the ring the day before he left home.
Bond said Mamie Till’s decision to hold an open casket funeral was both heroic and difficult.
“She wanted everybody to see the face of a lynch victim, to let them know this is what lynching looks like,” she said.
Bryant and Milam were acquitted of both kidnapping and murder charges, but they later confessed their guilt in a Look magazine article after the trial.
Bond said Till’s slaying and other events of the time period helped spur the modern Civil Rights Movement. However, it was not out of fear of white racism, but anger.
“They realized that this type of racism had to end,” she said. “What those particular white people had done to this child could be done to any other black child.”
Tamisha Weathers, a freshman business administration major, said its important for the younger generation to remember the Till case and other similar events.
“We should care because it affects us,” she said. “If you don’t know your past, you’re lost.”
Teneirva Dodson, a freshman computer science major, agrees.
“If you don’t know or understand your past, it will be difficult for you to determine your future,” she said.
