The Murder of Emmett Till

Information about the video presentation in class today, The Murder of Emmett Till, can be found by following the provided link. Unfortunately, the video is not available online, although you may find bits and pieces about Till's death on YouTube. Emmett Till was a 14 year old African American boy from Chicago, visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, who unknowingly transgressed a racial taboo, and paid for it with his life.

While watching this documentary, I think it is important to note how reliant the white store owners, Roy and Caroline Bryant, were upon the trade of African Americans--and why the social distance that segregation and Jim Crow provided poor whites like the Bryants was so important to them. This is important, I believe, in understanding why working-class whites in the South provided support to segregationists in this region. It is also important to appreciate the courage that it took for African Americans living in the South to stand up and demand to be treated like full-fledged citizens.