Emmett Till remembered through events marking 70 years since the teenager’s brutal murder

Veterans of the movement and members of Till’s family commemorated the teenager’s life in a series of events that shed light on the events leading up to Till’s death and where the Civil Rights movement is now.

Charles McLaurin was an activist with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, also known as SNCC. Speaking on a panel at Mississippi Valley State University recently, he recalls the emotional toll the murder of Emmett Till had on the Black community when it was first reported. 

“The black community was devastated, first of all, devastated,” he said. “My friends and I, Black folk got angry.”

Till was killed August 28, 1955. A young teenager from Chicago, Till visited the grocery store of Roy and Carolyn Bryant with family members. Carolyn accused Till of whistling at her. Her husband and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, kidnapped Till from his uncle Mose Wright’s house in the middle of the night four days later.

McLaurin says the idea of power imbalances present in 1955 was an important consideration.

“Imagine, two white men walking into your home with a gun and asking for a member of your family,” McLaurin said. “So you think about, you know, that there's nothing you can do!"

Reverend Wheeler Parker is Till’s cousin. He took the train from Chicago to the Mississippi Delta in the days before the 70th year commemoration ceremonies - following the same route he and his cousin had taken to visit the state 70 years before. 

Parker is also the last surviving witness of Till’s kidnapping. 

“When his mother was living, every time I go around her, they say I had survival's guilt because we never talked about it,” he said. “His mother and I. Because she had lost her son, her only son, you know? And I saw the pictures of her grimacing and crying. She said, let the world see, but she closed her eyes. Tears come to my eyes.”

In a panel featuring the elders, and children, of the Civil Rights movement, Juliet Louis discussed the stories her husband told her before he passed. For the first seven years of their marriage, Louis had no idea that her husband was formally named Willie Reed, an 18-year-old eyewitness of Till’s abduction who later testified against the captors.

“He saw the truck going down the road going toward the barn,” Louis said. “He didn't know it was Emmett, then he said. But in the truck, there was a black gentleman that was holding someone down. So I guess that was Emmet that they was holding down, taking him to the barn.”

Bryant and Milam took Till to a seed barn on Milam’s property on the boundaries of Ruleville and Drew.

“He say that when they got out of the trunk, they took him in the barn, and he actually heard the hollering,” Louis continued. “He heard Emmett hollering he said. And he hollered and hollered until he didn't holler no more. So I guess that's when probably they knocked him out, killed him or something.”

Till had been tortured, beaten and shot to death. The men attached Till’s body to a heavy cotton gin fan and threw him in the Tallahatchie River.

At least 30 minutes away from the barn, a marker now stands at Graball Landing, not far from the banks of the river. The former steamboat landing is a secluded space where historians believe Till’s body was found by fishermen.

It was the sight of Till’s body that further changed the trajectory of the Civil Rights movement. To the surprise of many at the time, Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, decided to have an open casket funeral for her son. She was determined for the world to see her son’s swollen, mutilated body. 

After a candle lit ceremony held in front of Till’s statue in Greenwood, MPB News spoke with Andrew Withers. He is the son of Ernest Withers, the Civil Rights photographer who took the images of Emmett Till that moved the world.

“The job of a journalist is to inform the public of what is going on now and the effects of what has happened in the past,” he said.

Jackson native and SNCC veteran, McLaurin, who was 16 when Till was murdered, saw pictures of Till in Jet magazine.

“I still get angry when I go to Money, Mississippi, but there was nothing we could do,” he said.

Dave Dennis, Sr. is a former Freedom Rider. He says Till’s story continues to spark deep emotions.

“We ought to be angry,” he said. “Because anger doesn't mean you have to be violent, but it means ‘I'm going to get up and do something.’ And so what happened there is people said we've got to do something, and it was based around, we've got to protect our children.”

Neither J.W. Milam or Roy Bryant were found guilty of Till’s murder. Four months after being acquitted by an all-white jury, they were paid thousands for a confession to the murder in Look magazine. 

Outside of the barn where Till was tortured and killed in Ruleville, mourners sang and prayed. Pastor Darryl Johnson says it’s important not to forget what happened to 14 year old Till. 

“To say that what happened here is not just murder,” he preached. “It was a mirror. It was the mirror of hatred, of systematic racism, and fear of the country that has yet to fully confront its own heart.”

Family members, the public and civil rights leaders laid roses in the doorway of the open barn. 

It was the first time that Rev. Parker, Till’s cousin, delivered a sermon outside of the barn. Speaking to MPB News, he says the event left him overwhelmed but elated.

“I remember the first 30 years was like, he got what he deserved and I've seen it turn around to where it is now,” he said. “Where there's honor and respect.”

Parker says he continues to speak out against hate but understands the anger that surrounds his cousin’s death.

“Well, nothing wrong with anger,” he said. “It's wrong not to get angry. Like we said, be angry and sin not. It's how you handle the anger, how you go forward.”

Parker paused to consider what he said was an unusual occurrence that he says happened the first time he went to the barn. 

“Last time I was there, something strange happened,” he said. “Like you feel this wind now? All of a sudden we're there and all of sudden a gush of wind. We say, one of them's trying to tell us something, you know? I mean, the gush of wind just come out of nowhere.”

The Emmett Till interpretative center is working with partners to preserve the barn. Details surrounding Till’s case are still being revealed to the public. 

Recently, a 45 caliber pistol that matches a weapon from FBI files on the Till case is now on display at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson. A holster showcased with the gun has the initials J M. Historians believed the gun belonged to J.W. Milam. 

Pamela Junior is the former director of the Two Mississippi Museums.

“It really tore me up,” she said. “It really tore me up because what it made me think about is not a man, but a boy. A 14-year-old boy. And I have to keep saying that a 14- year-old boy, not a grown man that people were saying, but a boy.”