Did The Death Of Emmett Till Spark The Civil Rights Movement?

Section 1: Identification and Evaluation of sources (508) This investigation will explore the question: To what extent did the death of Emmett Till spark the Civil Rights movement? The year 1955 will be the central point of this investigation to authorize for a research of Emmett Till’s death case in Mississippi, as well as its impact on the Civil Rights movement. The first source which will be evaluated in extent is Keith Beauchamp’s documentary “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005)”, released to the world in 2006. The origin of this source is valuable because Beauchamp is a filmmaker who further investigated the tragic death of Emmett Till and also was one of the main reason Till’s murder case was reopened by the United States

Emmett Louis Till was a black boy from Chicago. Till was just visiting his grand-uncle, Mose Wright, and his family in Money, Mississippi on August 14th, 1955. A whistle from Emmett Till to Carolyn Bryant, a high class white woman, was unwelcomed as he was walking out of Bryant’s grocery and meat market. A few days later, on August 28th, 1955, Emmett Till was taken from his grand-uncle’s home outside of Money, Mississippi by two white men- Carolyn’s husband, Roy, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam. The men then transported Till to a barn, tortured the boy, horribly defaced him, and threw him in the Tallahatchie River. This crime will later be known as one of the most brutal hate crimes in the United States as well as the most heart sickening crimes which will trigger black Americans to fight for their freedom and for their rights. Mississippi officials wanted the body to put underground immediately to prevent anyone from looking at the body. However, a decision was made by Emmett Till’s mother that could possibly change the lives of black Americans. On August 31st, 1966, Mamie Till Molby successfully rallied Chicago officials and stop the funeral in Mississippi. Funeral director, A.AA Rayner, who prohibited from opening the casket; however, Rayner went against the state of Mississippi and opened the casket for Till’s mother and allowed her to look at her son’s beaten face on September 3rd, 1955. Mamie Till made a brace decision when she was done looking at her son’s horribly defaced body. The mother not only had the courage to have an open casket funeral, but also to allow newspapers like Jet Magazine to take pictures of what the two white men had done to her son. Published photos of the defaced body of Emmett Till created a “worldwide uproar for change and a stop to discrimination and white supremacy” in the United States. By doing this selfless