In 1955 the image of Emmet Till's body polarized the nation. Till, a young man of 14, was brutally beaten in Mississippi after he was accused of whistling at a white woman named Carolyn Bryant in a grocery story. His mother, Mamie, made the bold decision to display his body in order to demonstrate the disrespect and violence that racists used to control black lives and labor. Mamie Till, an exceptional woman and single mother had sent Emmet to visit their family members 'down South'. Emmet was known to be a smart boy who helped his mother by being responsible and managing the house while she was at work. Mamie Till had already overcome many obstacles in order to raise a bright young boy in Chicago. Emmet's father had been executed during the war, a murder that remains mystifying. After her successful academic achievements, she worked as a clerk to support herself and her son.
Emmet's visit to his family represented a North-South black tradition that many African American youth experienced, including myself and my brother. African Americans with Southern roots frequently traveled from their Northern homes 'down South' during the summer to visit family and participate in the cross-cultural and regional ties that provided continuity and unity in spite of distance. When I first learned about Till's murder it brought home to me the whispered conversations my elderly family members exchanged and explained why very few of them ever visited South Carolina. Even more impressionable to me was the fact that I was born exactly 11 years after Till's murder. Later, when I saw the picture of his mangled body the horror I experienced stripped away any illusion that I had of equal justice in the United States.
Carolyn Bryant's husband, Roy and J.W. Milam kidnapped Till from his family's home and killed him at the Tallahatchie River. In spite of the eyewitness accounts of his family members, they were cleared of the murder. This injustice represented the fact that blacks' testimonies against whites were inadmissible, a hold over from the Slave Codes and post-Reconstruction Black Codes which marginalized black life and reinforced their lack of protection under the law. Later, the murderers recounted their story to Look Magazine for $4,000.00, relying on double jeopardy to remain free. It says so much about Mississippi and the U.S. that two men could boldly admit to murder, collect a reward, and never face the consequences. Recently, Carolyn Bryant admitted that she lied on Till and she has not faced any charges for being complicit in his murder. Currently, Till's murder is being investigated by the Department of Justice although Bryant and Milam have passed away.
This murder, this lynching, represents the epitome of Ida B. Wells' work to protect and defend Black lives: http://100photos.time.com/photos/emmett-till-david-jackson.
In February 2020, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Emmet Till Antilynching Act, after its passage in the U.S. Senate in 2018 in order to establish lynching as a federal hate crime. The bills now need to be revised for the president's signature. While this is a momentous event, it was over 100 years ago that an antilynching bill was proposed in 1918 by Leonidas C. Dyer, a Republican from St. Louis, Missouri and the Black Lives Matter Movement demonstrates that we cannot continue to tolerate racially motivated violence and murder. It is notable that the state of Georgia lacks a hate crime statute to charge Travis and Gregory McMichael for the lynching of Ahmaud Aubery on February 25, 2020. The McMichaels followed Aubery in their pickup truck on the claim that he was a robbery suspect. They confronted him with their guns and he was subsequently shot to death. Although they have been charged with his murder, this occurred after video footage taken by their friend riding in another truck began to circulate on social media. The McMichaels' claim that they were trying to make a citizens' arrest and Aubery attacked them, yet the video clearly shows that Aubery was trying to defend himself when confronted face-to-face by a man with a shotgun. Aubery's murder, like the murders of so many African Americans by vigilantes and police demonstrate the need for the bill to pass and for states to adopt uniform anti-hate legislation.
Ida B. Wells' courageous and tireless work to end lynching can never be forgotten. In May 2020, she was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for her antilynching journalism and her crusade to end this cruel injustice. It is clear that all of us must uplift her work and continue to agitate for justice.
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