The Story of Emmet Till is one of the most tragic stories in American history. Emmett Louis Till was 14-year’s-old when he was kidnapped, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955. Today would have been his 81st birthday, and as we reflect on the constant battle against racism, hatred, and violence, we also remember Till’s legacy. 

See, Emmet Till didn’t die in vain. In March 2022 the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Emmet Till anti-lynching act which made lynching a federal hate crime. The bill, which was introduced by the late John Lewis in 2007, also allowed for the reopening of unsolved murder cases against Black people during the civil rights movement.

Even though Till’s murder was more than 65 years ago, folks still want accountability and justice for his death. 

Carolyn Bryant Donham, the 88-year-old woman who played a role in Till’s 1955 abduction and lynching is back in the spotlight after new evidence was recovered.

In August 1955, Emmet Till was visiting Mississippi from Chicago. During a trip to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market, Donham falsely accused Till of flirting with her and grabbing her. Witnesses said that he only whistled at her. The accusation prompted her then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam to abduct the teenager at gunpoint from his great-uncle’s home. After torturing and lynching Till, the men tied a cotton-gin fan around his body and threw him into the Tallahatchie River where he was found several days later.

His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted that her son have an open casket so that the world could see the savagery of white supremacist aggression which has always treated Black children as enemy combatants in the same brutal manner as adults.

Milam and Bryant were charged with murder but acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury. The men confessed to their crimes in an interview with Look magazine just months later, but double jeopardy laws prevented them from being tried again. Though Donham was also named on the original arrest warrant, she was never served.

In June 2022, filmmaker Keith Beauchamp and his colleagues found the unserved warrant for Donham in the basement of the historic Leflore County Courthouse in Greenwood, Mississippi.

Now members of Emmett’s family are calling for the warrant to finally be served. Sadly, the office of Mississippi’s attorney general has stated that neither the revelation of a decades-old unserved warrant nor a memoir written by the woman is enough to bring new charges against Donham. 

The death of Emmett Till sent shockwaves through American households. But the actions of Till’s mother are what made people have to pay attention. The open casket of her son forced people to see the viciousness and ugliness of racism. 

Below is a collection of archived photos of Emmett Till’s life, his lynching, and the murder trial for his death. 

The post Emmett Till’s Life, Lynching And Murder Trial In Photos appeared first on NewsOne.