2003

March 15, 2003
PBS
USA
English
53 minutes

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old from Chicago in Mississippi for the summer visiting family. Witnesses say that he whistled at the grocery store owner's wife while buying a soda pop. He was dragged from his home that night and never seen alive again. A compelling argument can be made that Till caused so much outrage among both black and white that it actually jump-started the Civil Rights movement. This can be traced back to one of those decisions that seems ridiculous at the time, but has proven to have perhaps changed history. Till's mother decided to leave Emmitt's coffin open while the ten thousand mourners filed past in Chicago. The sight of his beaten and shot and water-damaged body was more than most could take. People began forming groups, the photos were published in independent papers.

There was a trial and the two men who witnesses say dragged him out of bed and who owned the truck that their servant was seen washing blood from were found innocent after less than 90 minutes. Members of the jury were heard to tell each other jokes. They also claim to have come to their decision after about five minutes but didn't think it would look good so they waited nearly 90. The two men were released, the white townspeople rejoiced, the overweight sheriff told blacks "that's what you niggers get for telling the NAACP". The two men later sold their story to a magazine where they admitted everything they had been accused of. Chilling.