Emmett Till Research Paper

American history is filled with cases of extreme racism, and many times people are killed for nothing more than the color of their skin.
One example can be shown in the Emmett Till case,when Emmett, a normal teenager, was wrongly murdered.
Emmett Till was a young boy whose legacy changed the way people think about racial issues.
Although Emmett Till lived a short life, he helped bring about a change in civil rights for African Americans.

Even though it was cut short, Emmett Till lived a calm and normal life. Emmett Till lived like any other teenage boy and the writer of “The Murder” adds to this when he writes, “He was growing up to be a happy, responsible boy who loved to make people laugh” (“The Murder”).Although it was not long , “Emmett …show more content…
Many people say that , “Emmett became a martyr for the fledgling civil rights movement that would engross the country in a few years” (The Lynching of Emmett Till).Emmett was a martyr for civil rights because he basically was sacrificed,and in his death he gave African Americans the last piece that they needed to begin the civil rights movement. Even though he brought about civil changes, “ The fact that two white men were not convicted of murdering a young Black boy was not surprising in 1955 Mississippi” (The Murdered).This quote basically states that white men killed black men all the time with no fuss so when it came to Emmett’s death it was no surprise to others in the south. When it came to the jury it was severely unfair as stated in “The Murdered”, “It took just little more than an hour for an all-white male jury to acquit Bryant and Milam of the murder of Emmett Till. Months later, Look magazine paid Bryant and Milam $4,000 so they would reveal how they killed the Chicago teen”(The Murdered).The jury at the trial was made up of white people who were just as racists as Bryant and Milam so again no one batted an eye or was surprised when they were acquitted except for the northerners and African Americans.Lastly, even though he started all these things his family never saw any justice for what was done to Emmett Till on that August night in 1955. The only justice …show more content…
Barbed wire tied around his neck. He was shot in the head” (“The Murdered”).Three days later, Till’s bloated body surfaced, his face severely disfigured. He was identified by a ring on his finger, one his mother had given him that had his father’s initials. Which sadly was the only way he could have been identified because he had been beaten so bad. His mutilated body was on display for five days as more than 100,000 folks lined the streets of Chicago to get a glimpse of what hate could do,and this was the beginning of the civil rights movement and the opening of eyes to see how hateful a racists white person can

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