American history is filled with many racism stories. Many times discrimination happens for no reason other than the color of a person’s skin. In August 1955, a fourteen year old African American boy named Emmett Till and his cousin Cursi took a trip to visit relatives in Mississippi. He had dealt with segregation in his hometown of Chicago, but nothing compared with the extreme hate crimes that occur in Mississippi. The way he died made many people changed the way they think of racial issues.
I was a friend of the Till’s family. I had one son that was close in age with Emmett. I remember we all got together the day before he left to go to Mississippi and I overheard his mother talking to him in the kitchen. “She told her boy not to fool with
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It is sad to even think about it now. The two men that murdered little Emmett was the husband of the girl that he talked to in the store, and the man’s cousin. “African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His assailants-the white woman’s husband and her brother-made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton-gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the River.” ( website history). I remember Emmett’s mother reaction as if it was yesterday. “In Chicago, Mamie Till arrives at the Illinois Central Terminal to receive Emmett 's casket. She is surrounded by family and photographers who snap her photo collapsing in grief at the sight of the casket.” (PBS) That was one of the most depressed days in my life. Emmett’s mother had an open casket for everyone to see what they did to her son. She did not want her son to just die to die. It showed how cruel this world is and she wanted to get the message out.
Emmett Till’s story has changed how people think of racial issues and maybe could even change the course of the Civil Rights Movement. His mother was right for having an open casket memorial for the message to get out. He was buried on September 6,1955. The 60th year of Emmett’s memorial will be in 3 more days. His legacy will still lives on with us to remind us that we need to stop racism and