AchievementAugust 28, 1955· politics
Murder of Emmett Till Galvanizes Civil Rights Movement
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was brutally murdered in Money, Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman. His mother Mamie Till insisted on an open casket funeral, exposing the world to the horror of racist violence. The acquittal of his killers outraged the nation and is widely cited as a catalyst for the civil rights movement.