September 1955
Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam are tried for Emmett Till's murder in Sumner, Mississippi. The trial lasts five days. Moses Wright courageously identifies the defendants from the stand — an act of extraordinary bravery for a Black man in Mississippi. The all-white jury deliberates 67 minutes before acquitting both men. A juror later says they would have decided sooner but took a soda break to make it 'look like they considered it.' Protected by double jeopardy, Bryant and Milam confess to the murder in Look magazine in January 1956.
When Emmett Till's mutilated body is returned to Chicago, his mother Mamie Till-Mobley insists on an open casket funeral at Roberts Temple Church of God. 'I wanted the world to see what they did to my boy,' she says. An estimated 50,000-100,000 people view the body over four days. Jet magazine publishes the photographs. Mamie's decision to make her son's murder visible galvanizes the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks later says she thought of Emmett Till when she refused to give up her bus seat.
Events
- September 3, 1955Mamie Till Demands Open Casket: 'Let the People See What They Did to My Boy'
When Emmett Till's mutilated body is returned to Chicago, his mother Mamie Till-Mobley insists on an open casket funeral at Roberts Temple Church of God. 'I wanted the world to see what they did to my boy,' she says. An estimated 50,000-100,000 people view the body over four days. Jet magazine publishes the photographs. Mamie's decision to make her son's murder visible galvanizes the civil rights movement. Rosa Parks later says she thought of Emmett Till when she refused to give up her bus seat.
- September 23, 1955Till Murderers Acquitted by All-White Jury in 67 Minutes
Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam are tried for Emmett Till's murder in Sumner, Mississippi. The trial lasts five days. Moses Wright courageously identifies the defendants from the stand — an act of extraordinary bravery for a Black man in Mississippi. The all-white jury deliberates 67 minutes before acquitting both men. A juror later says they would have decided sooner but took a soda break to make it 'look like they considered it.' Protected by double jeopardy, Bryant and Milam confess to the murder in Look magazine in January 1956.
- September 23, 1955The trial and acquittal of Emmett Till's killers
In September 1955 an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam of Emmett Till's murder in about an hour — even after Mose Wright bravely identified them in court. Months later, the two confessed in a paid magazine interview.