Who Is Emmett Till's Contribution To The Civil Rights Movement?

While it may seem unimaginable now, in recent American history there has been proof of racial intolerance resulting in gruesome death towards African Americans. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, an African American man living in Alabama, is falsely accused of raping a caucasian woman. He is pronounced innocent because of Atticus Finch’s work, but he is still lynched by a mob. In the real world there are no Atticus Finchs, so Emmett Till was unsuccessful in his case and still murdered. Emmett was a teenager when he was accused of whistling at a white women and suffered his dire fate (Kauffman). After killing Till, his murderers were swiftly acquitted by the jury, and this gave the country a rude awakening (Nilsen). These actions were not well received by the world. The lynching of Emmett Till contributed to the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement in America by showing the entire country the horrors that were occurring in the South and uniting a people around a common cause.
In the early 1900s racial tensions in the southern parts of the United States were at a boiling point, and Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, was not aware of the societal differences in the North and South (Whitfield). In the summer of
1955, the city of Money, Mississippi was much like the rest of the South, stuck in the roots that were racism and segregation. At this time, there were “more than 3,000 free blacks killed by a mob since the abolition of slavery,” (“Emmett Till”). In many states, such as Mississippi, black lives were seen of lesser value than white lives (Kauffman). Ideology like this might have seemed unfathomable to a seventh grader from Illinois during this time period. Once Till visited his cousins down south, he bragged about his white girlfriend and the flexible social freedoms granted to those in the north (Spencer). Emmett didn’t have the self-awareness needed to recognize how different the two regions were, and this lead to his ultimate downfall.
Emmett Till was lynched after being accused of flirting with a married white woman, and his murderers were let off the hook, without punishment. While visiting his extended family across the country, he, after being dared by his cousins, acted suggestively towards shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant (Spencer). When Carolyn’s husband, Bob Bryant, found out that at black teenager did this, he and his half-brother felt forced to “abduct Till from his relatives' home, pistol-whip and then murder him, and finally to dump the corpse into the Tallahatchie River” (Whitfeild). Emmett had no idea that he had put himself into so much danger. His prank on the local shopkeeper might have been seen as childish back in Chicago, but in Mississippi, it was seen as revolting. It completely threatened the lifestyle that the majority of the people were used to.
Unfortunately, the injustice seen in the killing did not end at this point, as Till’s murderers, Bob Bryant and J.W. Milam, were promptly acquitted by the jury, even with numerous pieces of evidence going against them. After the body was found in Tallahatchie River, they were jailed under the accusation of murder and abduction (“Emmett Till”). The fact that no black people were able to have a voice in the decision, because they were not allowed on the jury, confirms that the odds were stacked against the dead teenager. After a shorted trial than expected, “[J.W. Milam and Bob Bryant] were acquitted on September 23 by an all-white jury because the body was too mangled to be definitively identified,” (Spencer). Even with multiple pieces of proof, the men on the jury could not find Till innocent. It would go against the societal norms that everyone was accustomed to at the time period.
The unfairness shown in the case of Emmett Till showed the entire world of the horrible actions taking place in the South.
Immediately after the verdict was reached, both predominantly black and white newspapers, specifically in the North, and foreign press, condemned the decision (Whitfield). Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till, ensured that images of her son’s mangled body would be published. These became a huge motivation in the Civil Rights movement (Nilsen). A public viewing was set up for Emmett, and “so many people came to pay their respects, that the funeral had to be postponed for two days,” (Nilsen). As shown, the terrible crime began to add fuel to the fire of social justice and showed the world what was truly
happening.
The swift release of the two killers changed the court system in charging criminals of civil rights cases and united a group of people to fight for a specific goal. Before, it was easy for the defendants to get acquitted. However, many realized the corruption would continue to occur, and they demanded change, agreeing that, “even though the police were not involved in the murder of Emmett Till, it was ... the sort of institutional structures of the law in Mississippi that ensured that Emmett Till's murders would not be punished,” (Tell as quoted in Kauffman). Many black protests erupted, and these lead “to the inclusion of legal mechanisms for federal investigation of civil rights violations in the Civil Rights Act of 1957,” (Spencer). These events showed how Emmett Till’s death was the event that triggered that beginnings of social justice for people of color, and even started what would later be known as the Civil Rights Movement.
By displaying the savagery occurring in the nation and amalgamating many people for one reason, the killing of Emmett Till propelled the beginnings of the United States Civil Rights Movement. Similar events were depicted in To Kill a Mockingbird, specifically Tom Robinson’s trial and eventual lynching. But without Atticus to fight on Emmett’s side, it was up to the general public to do the right thing. The event itself exemplifies how far people would go to preserve segregation and, as a result, spurred the support of rights for all people. The impact of the case brought the much-needed rights to people of color across the country. In this instance, the story of Emmett Till and his trial mirror that of Tom Robinson’s. However, in the real world, it was the individuals who were called upon to bring change to a world outside of Maycomb, Alabama.