Emmett Till
Emmett Till was a fourteen-year-old Black boy from Chicago whose 1955 murder in Mississippi became a catalyst for the American civil rights movement.
Accused of whistling at a white woman, Till was brutally beaten and killed by her husband and his half-brother, who were acquitted by an all-white jury.
His mother's decision to hold an open-casket funeral, exposing his mutilated body, galvanized national outrage: The Emmett Till case showed America the face of racial violence.
Extrajudicial killing by mob
- murderDeliberate unlawful killing
- 1955Mid-twentieth century year
- MississippiSouthern state or major river
- open casketFuneral with visible remains
funeral · trial · acquittal · confession · double jeopardy · witness · testimony · jury
Prejudice based on ethnicity
- Jim CrowRacial separation laws
- segregationForced separation by group
- white supremacyDoctrine of racial superiority
- discriminationUnjust differential treatment
inequality · brutality · hatred · violence · impunity · miscarriage · prejudice · terror
Yearlong Alabama transit refusal
- awakeningReturn to consciousness
- symbolRepresentational mark or sign
- iconPictorial screen symbol
- martyrVictim for beliefs
inspiration · remembrance · memorial · museum · documentary · photograph · Jet magazine · Chicago
Period following loss
- griefIntense sorrow from loss
- tragedyDisastrous or sorrowful event
- lossBeing without something
- sorrowDeep emotional distress
trauma · remembrance · legacy · commemoration · monument · plaque · vandalism · preservation
lynching
Extrajudicial killing by mob
- murderDeliberate unlawful killing
- 1955Mid-twentieth century year
- MississippiSouthern state or major river
open casket · funeral · trial · acquittal · confession · double jeopardy · witness · testimony · jury · all-white jury
racism
Prejudice based on ethnicity
- Jim CrowRacial separation laws
- segregationForced separation by group
- white supremacyDoctrine of racial superiority
discrimination · inequality · brutality · hatred · violence · impunity · miscarriage · prejudice · terror · oppression
Montgomery Bus Boycott
Yearlong Alabama transit refusal
martyr · inspiration · remembrance · memorial · museum · documentary · photograph · Jet magazine · Chicago · funeral attendance
mourning
Period following loss
sorrow · trauma · remembrance · legacy · commemoration · monument · plaque · vandalism · preservation · history
- 1950sEisenhower, poodle skirt, Elvis Presley, Rosa Parks, baby boom
- Black IconsMartin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, Jackie Robinson
- Famous DeathsAbraham Lincoln, Julius Caesar, John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., Archduke Franz Ferdinand
- Mississippi HistoryMississippi Delta, Mississippi River, Vicksburg, Jackson, Natchez
- Southern HistoryDeep South, Antebellum, Old South, Dixie, Confederate
- Southern IconsElvis Presley, William Faulkner, Martin Luther King Jr., Tennessee Williams, Rosa Parks
Emmett TillGeorge Wallace
Alabama segregationist politician
Emmett Tilllynch mobs
Crowds enacting illegal executions