Figure 1.-.
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Figure 1.-. |
Most Americans during the 1950s were not particularly interested in the Civil Rights movement. They were also for the most part not aware of the vilolence and brutalization of Blacks in the South. It was a Chicago teenager, Emmet Till and his mother that began the process of educating America. Emmett was a 14 year old boy endearingly called Bobo by his mother. Emmett was from Chicago and had gone to Mississippi for a short period to visit relatives during the summer school break. He was barbarically killed by two Mississppi men on August 28, 1955 a few days before he was to return to Chicago to begin the new school year. His muder was grusome. His mother bravely decided to keep the casket open to expose to the nation what was happening to Black people, even boys as young as Emmett, in Mississippi and other Southern states.
Most Americans during the 1950s were not particularly interested in the Civil Rights movement. They were also for the most part not aware of the vilolence and brutalization of Blacks in the South. Public opinion polls in the early 1950s gave no indication that the average American felt that Civil Rights was a pressing issue which need to be addressed.
It was a Chicago teenager, Emmet Till and his mother that began the process of educating America. Emmett was a 14 year old boy endearingly called Bobo by his mother. Emmett was from Chicago and had gone to Mississippi for a short period to visit relatives during the summer school break in Money, Mississppi.
No one is precisely sure what sparked to attack on Emmett. Some say he whistled at a White woman. Another account was that he talked fresh. No one now knows. Emmitt being from Chicago and only 14 years old, he would noy have been aware of the enormity of this action in Mississippi.
He was barbarically killed by two Mississppi men on August 28, 1955 a few days before he was to return to Chicago to begin the new school year. We know precisely how Emmitt was murdered. The muderes had no fear of prosecution in Mississppi. Only Whites were allowed to serve on juries in Mississipi and no jury in the history of the sate had ever found a White man guilty of murdering a White man, woman, or child. After a jury aquitted them, J.W. "Big" Milam (age 36) and his half brother Roy Bryant (age 24) for a fee agreed to an interview with Look Magazine explaining how they killed Emmitt. (Having been aquitted they could not be retried.) This is their chilling account:
Milam: "Take off your clothes."
Slowly, Bobo sat down, pulled off his clothes, his socks. He stood up, unbuttoned his shirt, dropped his pants, his shorts. He sttod there naked. It was Sunday morning, a little before 7 a.m.
Milam: "You still as good as I am?"
Bobo: "Yeah."
Milam: "You still had white women."
Bono: "Yeah."
Thay big .45 jumped in Big Milam;s hand. The youth turned to catch that big expanding bullet at his right ear. He dropped. They barb-wired the gin fan to his neck, rolled him intp 20 feet of water. For 3 hours that morning, there was a fire in Big Milam's back yard: Bobo's crepe soled shoes were hard to burn. 72 hours later--8 miles downstram--boys were fishing. They saw feet sticking out of the water. Bobo. [Huie]
His muder was grusome. His mother bravely decided to keep the casket open to expose to the nation what was happening to Black people, even boys as young as Emmett, in Mississippi and other Southern states. Emmitts body was a terrible site. All but two of his teeth were gone. One ear was missing and an eyeball detached and his corpse was swollen. Photographers took photographs and they were published in Jet and Ebony.
The pictures helped galvanize Black opionion to support the movement. Membership in the NAACP increased as did contributions. [Terkle] The immediate impact was on Black opinion. Publication of the story in Look was the beginning of the process of chaning White public opinion. Vilolent resuatance to school desegragation as well as increasingly well punlicized attacks on White and Black Civil Rights workers in the South slowly changed public opinion in the North. Many in the North not overly sympathetic to Blacks, were offeneded by the mindless violence such as the murder of three little girls in their Sunday school un Birmingham. Legal and extra legal vilonence had been used fir years to supress Blacks. In the 1950s-60s, however, this viloence now well publicized served to convince most Americans that Civil Rights was a priority natonal issue.
Huie, William Bradford. Look Magazine (1956).
Terkle, Studs. Race.
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