Emmett Till
Emmett Till
On August 28th 1955, in the dead of night, two men pulled up to Emmett’s uncles, Moses Wrights, cabin. Inside Emmett and his cousins slept peacefully having forgotten about the events that unfolded four days earlier, Wednesday. The two men banged loudly on the door demanding “the boy who done the talking.” Moses opened the door and standing in front of him was Roy Bryant and J. W. Milan holding a gun and a flashlight. Moses pleaded with the men “He’s only fourteen… why not give the boy a whipping?” Milan turned to him and asked “how old are you preacher?” Moses replied “sixty four,” and Milan said “you make any trouble, you’ll never live to be sixty five.” The two men piled Emmett into the back of a truck and drove off into the night.
Emmett Till was a 14 year old boy living in Chicago during the 1950’s. He was energetic, friendly and loved life, often playing on the street with his cousins and friends. He was a sizable boy, standing at 5 feet 4 inches (1.63 m) and 180 pounds (68 kg). In 1955 Emmett’s great uncle came to Chicago to visit Emmet’s mother, Mammie, and Emmett, he told stories of living on the Mississippi Delta and immediately Emmett wanted to see it for himself. Mammie warned Emmett “that Mississippi was not Chicago. And when you go to Mississippi, you're living by an entirely different set of rules. Ah, it is, 'yes, ma'am' and 'no, ma'am', 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir'.” Emmett, being a typical teenage boy, brushed these comments aside not giving them much thought.
Mississippi was the most segregated state in America at the time, it was vastly different from Chicago. While Chicago was still a racist and somewhat segregated city it had nowhere near the same racist attitudes as Mississippi. So when Emmett arrived in Mississippi in August, the height of scorching hot summer, he was in for a whole different world. He was staying near the town of Money, really only a street with a few doors and a population of no more than 100 people.
In the early evening 8 young African Americans pulled up to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market. Bryant’s made most of their money from selling candy and soda to children as well as an assortment of groceries. Emmett bragged about his white girl back in Chicago, pulling out a picture from his wallet. "You talkin' mighty big, Bo," one boy said. "There's a pretty little white woman in the store. Since you know how to handle white girls, let's see you go in and get a date with her?" Emmett, not one to back down from a bet, walked confidently into the store and asked the lady at the counter, Carolyn Holloway Bryant, for 2 cents of bubble gum. Squeezing her hand he said "You needn't be afraid o' me, Baby. I been with white girls before." A cousin, deciding this had gone far enough, ran into the store and dragged Emmett out. Carolyn headed straight to the Milan car to grab the pistol. Emmett gave one last wolf whistle to her before taking off in the car with the 7 others. Carolyn’s husband, Roy Bryant, was in Texas at the time of the event but when he got back Carolyn told her beloved husband of the terrible black boy who’d made a pass at her. Roy, with his brother J.W Milam an ill-tempered violent man, took off to the cabin Emmett was staying in.