Louis Till Executed by U.S. Army in Italy; Army Leaks His Record to Discredit Emmett

Louis Till, Emmett Till's father, is executed by the U.S. Army in Italy on July 2, 1945 for murder and rape. In 1955, after Emmett's murder and the acquittal of his killers, Mississippi Senator James Eastland and the White Citizens Council obtain Louis Till's military records — normally confidential — and leak them to the press to suggest Emmett inherited criminal tendencies. The U.S. Army cooperates in releasing the records. The smearing of a dead soldier's record to justify his son's murder illustrates government complicity in white supremacist propaganda.