“When people saw, what had happened to my son, men stood up who had never stood up before,” said Mamie Till, whose son was brutally murdered in a racially motivated crime. Most people are quite familiar with who Martin Luther King Jr, Rosa Parks and Malcom X are, and how they contributed to the Civil Rights Movement, but few have heard of the story of Emmett Till. This young man's death galvanized activists across the country when the gory images of his body sparked a revolution to fight against the injustices forced upon African Americans. Emmett Till's story is legendary and important, and he should be recognized as one of the most important contributors to the Civil Rights Movement.
During the summer of 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till went to Money, Mississippi to visit his uncle and cousins. One evening after a long day of working on the field, Emmett and his cousins decided to go into town to pick up some refreshments. The young boy went into the Bryant’s family store to purchase bubble gum. Emmett was allegedly accused of flirting and making advances at the cashier, Carylon Bryant. On his way out of the store, Carylon followed him rushing to her car for a…show more content… Years later in 2007, the grand jury found there to be insufficient evidence to bring charges, and they decided to end the case. A year later Carolyn Bryant interviewed with the historian Timothy Tyson, the author of The Blood of Emmett Till. She told him, “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” and then she went on to confess to have fabricated her story of what happened in the store the day Emmett came in. The confession was not released to the public until January 2017. Carylon Bryant was once again able to avoid indictment for Emmett’s death without the release of her confession. Several individuals were left with the unanswered question of why Tyson waited so long to reveal the
