The Blood of Emmett Till

“The murder of Emmett Till was reported in one of the very first banner headlines of the civil rights era and launched the national coalition that fueled that modern civil rights movement.” 

One of the book’s major themes is that Emmett Till did not die in vain. His death and the subsequent murder trial were reported widely in the press, both nationally and internationally. It inspired black activists to launch new efforts like bus boycotts and sit-ins that ultimately ended racial segregation in the South.

“Without justifying the murder, a number of Southern newspapers argued that the boy was at least partially at fault. The most influential account of the lynching, Huie’s 1956 presumptive tell-all, depicted a black boy who virtually committed suicide with his arrogant responses to his assailants.” 

Southern whites were inclined to justify rather than condemn violence against blacks. They could not overly argue that blacks should be harmed, but they could imply that harm was deserved if the cultural mores governing black behavior toward whites were ignored. Blacks were expected to behave in a deferential manner. If they did not, and if violent punishment resulted, then blacks were to blame.

“That part’s not true.”

With this very simple statement, Carolyn Bryant, the woman supposedly assaulted by Emmett Till, admits that she lied in court when she claimed he put his hands on her. This admission is important because Till’s killers used her false testimony to justify what they did. While Bryant was not allowed to speak directly to the jury, word of her testimony no doubt reached them, and one defense attorney alluded to it in his summation, thereby giving an already biased jury all they needed to acquit Till’s killers.