Papers On Emmett Till

Connor Olsen

Ms. Feronti

ELA

7 March 2018

Emmett Till Emmett Till was a 14 year old african american boy that was shot and killed. He was a nice, fun, and energetic kid. He was also a jokester. He liked to goof around. He was killed because he was black and he supposedly whistled inappropriately at a white woman.

Emmett lived in a working class neighborhood with his mom Mamie, and his siblings on the southside of Chicago, Illinois. Emmett's dad died while serving in the U.S army in Italy in 1945. Emmett went to a segregated elementary school. As a child he had polio then he developed a stutter. When he was ten his family moved to Chicago. Then four years later he went to Mississippi for the summer to visit his cousins and other family.

Before he left his mom said to stay out of trouble. So he goes to the counter to pay then his cousins dare him to flirt with the cashier so he does that. When they leave the husband of the cashier was going in and hears Emmett “wolf-whistle” at her. That night the husband and his half brother appear at Emmett’s cabin and kidnapped Till. They slashed one of his eyes out, tied a 100 pound cotton gin around his neck with barbed wire, then shot him in his head. The surprising thing is that both of his cousins witnessed his kidnapping. Some people found his dead body in a river all bloated up. When his mother found out she requested it be moved back up to chicago and have a open casket funeral to show the people what they did. The jury was a bunch of white people so they said that the body was planted in the river by the NAACP so that they can get the attention. Four months later the husband and half brother confess to a newspaper company called the “Look” so than they posted it. The all-white jury let them go but they went back to mississippi and got beaten and protested about because of