SEPTEMBER 4,

1955 San Antonio Express EDITION #2

3RD SEPTEMBER 1955 | THE OPEN CASKET OF EMITT TILL SHOCKED THE WORLD

THE TRAGIC STORY OF EMMETT TILL:

A CALL TO END RACISM
MURDER ... SHOULD NOT GO UNPUNISHED
YET THE BRUTAL MURDER OF EMMETT TILL DID, BUT WHY? Who was Emmett TIll?
The story of Emmett Till is one that should evoke strong emotions in all who hear it. It
is a story of a young boy who was brutally murdered for the color of his skin, simply
because he was a black boy in a white man's world. It is a story of hate, bigotry, and
racism, and it is a story that should never be forgotten.

The failure to hold Till's murderers

accountable for their heinous crime highlights
the deep-seated racism and injustice
prevalent in Mississippi and the South! We can
no longer turn a blind eye, this has to stop.
Emmett Till's death must become a catalyst
for the protection of the most basic human
rights! THE RIGHT TO LIFE SHOULD BE
UNIVERSAL. His story continues to serve as a
stark reminder of the need for justice and
racial equality not only in Mississippi but
around the entirety of the United States of
Despite overwhelming evidence of America.
the two white men's guilt, who
identify as Roy Bryant and J.W.
Milam, an all-white jury acquitted
Two months ago I had a
them of the crime. The decision nice apartment in Chicago. I had
was widely criticised and seen as a
a good job. I had a son. When
blatant miscarriage of justice. The
killers later confessed to the crime something happened to the
in a magazine interview, but they Negroes in the South I said,
could not be retried due to double
jeopardy laws. `That's their business, not mine.'
Now I know how wrong. I was.
The murder of my son has shown
me that what happens to any of
us, anywhere in the world, had
Emmett Till
15 Year old Boy
Emmett Till was a 15 year old boy
remembered today as " a funny guy all
the time. He had a suitcase of jokes that
he liked to tell," "Brought a ray of
sunshine with him everywhere he went"
But sadly, that ray of sunshine was
wrongfully quenched on the 28th of
August when group of white men in
Mississippi brutally beat him to death. An
incident called a lynching and that is
becoming more and more frequent as
time passes. Emmett's only crime was
allegedly whistling and interacting with a
white woman at a shop. And for that he
was deemed a threat. An innocent naive
15 year old child deemed a threat! And for
this reason he was kidnapped from his
cousins home, beaten, and shot in the
head. His feeble was then disposed of
into a river, where it was discovered
three days later. By this time Till's body
was so mutilated it was nearly
unrecognisable. This was so bad that they
had to call his poor mother to help
identify him. Because nobody knows a

"
better be the business of us all. son better than their mother. But nobody
should have to go through that!

Mamie Till

The murder of Emmett Till was a tragedy, but it was also a

Till's devastated mother insisted on
a public, open-casket funeral for
her son to shed light on the
violence inflicted on Black people in
the South.
For Emmett's funeral, in Chicago,
Mamie Till insisted that the casket
containing his body be left open,
because, in her words, "I wanted
the world to see what they did to
my baby."
call to action. It was a reminder that we must never
become complacent in the face of hate and bigotry. We
must always be vigilant and always be willing to fight for
what is right.
So let us honor the memory of Emmett Till by committing
ourselves to the fight against racism and bigotry. Let us
stand up for justice and equality, and let us never forget
that we are all in this together. The road ahead may be long
and difficult, but with perseverance, determination, and
compassion, we can build a better future for ourselves and
for generations to come.

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