Emmet Till Is A Black Boy Who Was Tortured To Death For Allegedly Seducing A White Woman

Emmet Till (Sumber: Commons Wikimedia)

JAKARTA - While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, a 14 year old black boy named Emmett Till was brutally murdered. He was murdered for allegedly seducing a white woman four days earlier.

Two of the attackers, one of whom was the woman's husband, ordered Emmett to carry 34 kilograms of cotton gin to the banks of the Tallahatchie River. The two men then ordered Emmet to remove his clothes.

Unexpected. They then beat Emmet to death, gouged out his eyes, shot him in the head, and then threw Emmet's body into the river. Before being thrown into the river, Emmet's body was tied to a cotton gin with barbed wire.

Launching History, Emmet Till grew up in a working class environment on the south side of Chicago, United States (US). Despite attending an elementary school that segregates groups based on race, Emmet is not ready for such a separation. His mother warned Emmet to be careful because of his race. However, the cheerful Emmett loved to joke around.

On August 24, 1955, while with a cousin and a few friends in the yard of a shop, Emmett bragged that his hometown girlfriend was a white woman. Emmett's friends who were fellow blacks couldn't believe it.

They then challenged Emmett to ask a white woman named Carolyn Bryant, a store cashier, for a date. Emmet walked into the shop to buy some candy. As they were about to leave, Emmet heard him say, "Bye, baby" to the woman.

There are no witnesses in that shop. But Carolyn Bryant claims that she saw Emmet making lewd gestures and whistling at him as he walked out. Roy Bryant, the shop owner and the woman's husband returned from a business trip.

He heard how Emmett allegedly talked to his wife. Enraged, Bryant and his half brother JW Milam went to the home of Emmet's great-uncle, Mose Wright, on the early hours of August 28.

Bryant and Milam insist on meeting the boy. They forced Emmett into their car. After walking around at night, they took Emmet to the Tallahatchie River. Earlier, Emmet was allegedly beaten in a warehouse behind Milam's residence.

Three days later, Emmet's body was found severely damaged. Mose Wright could only identify the ring Emmet was wearing. Authorities want to bury Emmet's body immediately. However, the mother, Mamie Bradley, asked that Emmet's body be brought back to Chicago.

Open funeral ceremony

Mamie Bradley decided to hold an open funeral so the whole world could see what racist killers had done to her only son. Jet, the African-American weekly magazine, published a photo of Emmett's body. The mainstream media immediately picked up the story.

Less than two weeks after Emmett's body was buried, Milam and Bryant were tried in separate courts in Sumner, Mississippi. There were several witnesses, apart from Mose Wright, who positively identified the defendants as Emmett's killers.

On September 23, 1955, the jury deliberated less than an hour before issuing an "not guilty" verdict on Bryant and Milam. They explained that they believed the state had failed to prove the identity of Emmet's body.

Many people across the country were angry with the decision. They are also angry with the court's decision not to charge Milam and Bryant with separate kidnapping and murder charges.

In 2017, Tim Tyson, author of The Blood of Emmett Till, revealed that Carolyn Bryant retracted her testimony. He admitted that Emmett never touched, threatened, or abused him.

"Nothing the boy did could justify what happened to him," said Carolyn Bryant.