The 1950s were full of important achievements for African Americans. The United States Supreme Court had recently declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education case. However, segregation, and racial acts still took place every day. One of the most predominant events that took place in the 1950’s was the murder of fourteen-year-old Emmett Till. Emmett Till’s murder took place before the Civil Rights Movement had fully skyrocketed, his death invigorated the Civil Rights Movement and motivated people like Martin Luther King Jr., and Rosa Parks. Emmett Till was murdered because of false accusations and for being a black boy in the 1950’s.
Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till was born on July 25, 1941 in Chicago. He grew up in a middle-class black neighborhood in the South Side of Chicago. Emmett was the only child of Louis and Mamie Till. Mamie till raised Emmett as a single mother. Emmett never met his father, Louis till was executed during World War II. When Emmett Till was five years old he suffered from polio, because of this he was left with a slight
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Emmett Till’s body was shipped home in a sealed coffin but Mamie Till insisted that his body be shown in an open casket at a Chicago funeral home. The reason for Mamie Till demands for an open casket was she wanted the world to see the awful things they did to her son. She thought people wouldn’t believe her son was so brutally killed unless everyone saw it themselves. Mamie Till’s decision to have the open casket created a huge impact. Photos of Emmett’s mutilated body from the funeral were published by Jet, an African American weekly magazine, and Chicago Defender. Soon the murder of Emmett Till became international news and drew attention to the violent racism of the Jim Crow