Emmett Till
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The lynching of Emmett Till is among the most infamous lynchings in the United States. Till was just a boy of 14 years when his life was tragically and violently cut short on August 28, 1955 after a white woman named Carolyn Bryant accused him of offending her in a store. The perpetrators of the murder were Bryant’s then-husband and brother-in-law. The white men beat and shot Till before callously leaving his body in a river. Both men were acquitted by an all-white trial.
In June 2022, a warrant never served for Carol Bryant’s arrest surfaced in a courtroom basement, where it sat for nearly 70 years. The warrant was for her involvement in Till’s kidnapping. Public outcry led to a lawsuit against the woman, the first official action after reopening the case. However, she died before facing any legal ramifications for her involvement.
The lynching of young Emmett Till has become a tragic lesson in American race relationships. Although lynchings in the 1950s were less common than they once were, they still existed. The boy’s age may have encouraged people to draw a line where they might have looked the other way, leading to Carol Bryant’s warrant. However, Till’s murder was one act in a long line of anti-Black violence, and the failure to serve Carol Bryant’s warrant reveals the power of white privilege.
Still, Emmett Till’s murder galvanized other people into action, including his other, Mamie Till-Mobley. As a mother to a Black child, Till-Mobley was acutely aware of adultification bias, which happens when people see Black children as older and more threatening than they are (it continues to play a role in anti-Black violence). This fear was portrayed in a 2022 biopic about Till. But Till-Mobley had already been an activist for years, and the handling of her son’s funeral and her many public appearances contributed to this lynching becoming a national subject.
Emmett Till’s face has become familiar to many Americans as it appears in museums and on statues and other memorials, thanks in part to his mother’s efforts. Both Mamie Till-Mobley and her son were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2022. The same year, the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act was signed into law by President Joe Biden. Nevertheless, some view this law as an empty gesture, rightfully arguing that hate crimes were already illegal and the racism that allowed them to persist will continue to do so.
From the Huffington Post, Black Voices [T]he Grammy Award-winner is making headlines once again for his cameo on Future’s recently leaked track titled, “Karate Chop.” The song which is set to appear this weekend on DJ Smallz’s upcoming mixtape “This Is That Southern Smoke Vol. 4,” finds the New Orleans native making an explicit reference to “beating” a woman’s genitals in a manner similar to the beating Emmett Till took at the hands of Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam. On August 28, 1955 Till was kidnapped from his great-uncle’s home and taken to a barn. Bryant and Milam beat, tortured and killed Till, throwing his body, attached by barbed wire at the neck to the fan of a cotton gin, into the Tallahatchie River. Till’s killing, and the subsequent acquittal of Bryant and Milam sparked outrage across the country and is widely viewed as a tipping for the civil rights movement. Considering this history, the controversial lyric has since received a tremendous amount of backlash from many including Till’s family…. “I just couldn’t understand how you could compare the gateway of life to brutality and punishment of death,” she continued. And I feel that they don’t have no pride and no dignity as black men. Our family was very, very offended. Very hurt, disturbed by it.“ According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Future’s label, Epic Records, confirmed that the current version of “Karate Chop” circulating online leaked without the company’s authorization and added that the official version “has removed those lyrics from that song.” To listen to a Till relative’s conversation with Dr. Boyce Watkins about the family’s objections, click here. To read more Breaking News, click here.
Read MoreEmmett Till’s story is a critical reminder of the many lives cut short due to racist violence, so we remember it on his birthday.
Read MoreSome people have compared the murder of Trayvon Martin to that of another Black boy, Emmett Till. Do those comparisons hold water?
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