`The first and last chance for Emmett Till to speak for himself’

[undergroundrailroad]

Emmett Till

`The first and last chance for Emmett Till to speak for himself’

50 years after killing, FBI plans to exhume body

By John Bebow and Dawn Turner Trice
Tribune staff reporters

May 4, 2005

Fifty years ago, Mamie Till-Mobley demanded an open casket for her 14-year-old son so the world could see the brutality of Southern racism.

Now that casket will be opened once again by investigators still seeking justice for Emmett Till, the teen who paid with his life after allegedly whistling at a white woman in Mississippi.

Federal agents will exhume the body at Till's grave site in suburban Alsip, Ill., in the next few weeks for an autopsy to confirm Till's identity and cause of death, said Joyce Chiles, a Mississippi prosecutor who is leading the probe.

"The exhumation represents the first and last chance for Emmett Till to speak for himself," said Alvin Sykes, a Kansas City-based human rights worker who, with others, successfully lobbied authorities to reopen the Till case last year.

"We will hear from him as much as possible on how he died and to the extent that any evidence will be helpful in determining who did it and how many people were involved," Sykes said. "This will be his chance."

Till, a Chicago native, was staying with an uncle in Mississippi in late summer 1955 when he accompanied a group of kids to Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market in the village of Money.

While buying bubble gum, the boy allegedly whistled at a clerk, Carolyn Bryant, the pretty, 21-year-old wife of the store owner.

Days later, Till was kidnapped in the middle of the night from his uncle's home and soon his badly beaten and disfigured body was found in the Tallahatchie River. He had been tied with barbed wire to a large fan from a cotton gin.

[Catherine Vincent]

1. I get a cold chill everytime I read about that poor boy.

:-(

[Brewman_Jax]

2. A noble ambition

but this happened 50 years ago. Not that don't deserve it, but are there any suspects still alive to prosecute? :shrug:

[undergroundrailroad]

4. Yes, ONE, Carolyn Bryant. The very woman who lied under oath and the

recipient of Emmett Till's "wolf" whistle. But this is the problem I have with prosecuting her. She initially did NOT want to tell her husband about the wolf whistle that took place that day at Bryant's Grocery store and I think she deserves credit for that. Today she is an elderly woman who eventually divorced Roy Bryant and who, I'm sure (conjecture), has lived with this all her life. Also, it was alleged that Roy Bryant, her husband, was brutal to her, almost blaming her stance in which the flirtation took place. Sort of like the rape victim wanted it. Her emotional attitude towards the young Emmett did not sit well with Roy who is no longer alive.

Ironically, there is an African-American male witness that is still alive today that allegedly assisted Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam (also deceased) in the killing of Emmett Till. Should he be made to pay? This happened during the Jim Crow era when a black man could not say "no" to a white man no matter what the request was. It was the rule of law and saying "no" meant risking one's own life and that of his family.

Both men eventually sold their confession to LOOK MAGAZINE.

This is an ugly UGLY bloody part of Civil Rights history. For the historical content I agree with reopening the case. Emmett's mother wanted this until her last dying breath and for the sake of her and civil rights history it should be done.

[Brewman_Jax]

5. I thought that a reason for re-opening a case

was to right a past injustice; to free the innocent in the light of new evidence, or to seek and prosecute the true perpetrator(s) of the crime in question.

After reading the article, it appears that there may be suspects still alive to prosecute. The dead can't be put on trial, or am I wrong? :shrug:

[undergroundrailroad]

6. And the dead can't talk, or can they? I don't know much about the

application of DNA evidence but I think for the historical content, the body should be examined circa 1955/2005.

You know, I have always been fascinated by this case. I have read several books and articles in which the time line has shifted back and forth. Is it manslaughter or premeditated ? For the two principles it was murder one. For the accomplices that allegedly took part in the killing and the conspiracy it is probably murder two. For those looking for justice in the form of punishment, incarceration or the death penalty, the opportunity is long lost because as you pointed out, the self confessed killers are deceased. For those looking for historical vindication, they might find it in the grave. What is remarkable to me is that they want to ID the body to confirm that it *is* Emmett Till. It's about the civil rights era. A clandestine era in which "truth" has been legal, lost and buried. We might never understand the "why". Those that were apart of that era (including myself) are dwindling fast and perhaps we need to create historical documentation before it's to late. No, the dead can't be put on trial. But, history, the event CAN be put on trial. I think we owe that to Emmett Till and *I* feel that we owe it to African-Americans and future generations, all, that suffered the cruelty of discrimination in a country that we helped to build yet, didn't even ask to come to.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

3. Too little too late.

A better way to honor him would be to work for justice for those who commit hate crimes where the perpetrator can still be punished.

[Catherine Vincent]

7. FBI: No Federal Charges in Till Killing

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060317/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/till_investigation

[undergroundrailroad]

8. Emmett Till

FBI: No Federal Charges in Till Killing

By HOLBROOK MOHR, Associated Press WriterFri Mar 17, 4:38 AM ET

Although the 1955 killing helped galvanize the civil rights movement, those responsible for Emmett Till's death were never brought to justice. Now, more than 50 years after the black teen died, the FBI says too much time has passed to bring the case to federal court.

In a long-awaited report Thursday, the FBI said that no federal charges will be filed in the brutal death of the 14-year-old Till, who was beaten and shot for purportedly whistling at a white woman.

The Justice Department reopened the case last year after a documentary filmmaker claimed to have found investigative errors and concluded that some people involved in the crime were still alive.

FBI agent John G. Raucci said in a statement that the five-year statute of limitations on federal civil rights violations had expired. The FBI's report was sent to District Attorney Joyce L. Chiles, who will decide if any state charges can be filed. Chiles did not return a call seeking comment.

http://www.pbs.org:80/wgbh/amex/till/sfeature/images/sf_remember_corpse.jpg?mii=1
WARNING/GRAPHIC: The remains of Emmett Till

[undergroundrailroad]

9. "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi"

http://www.crimelibrary.com/graphics/photos/notorious_murders/famous/emmett_till/2-2Young%20Emmett%20Till,%20posing.jpg
Emmett Till


By William Bradford Huie

Editors Note: In the long history of man's inhumanity to man, racial conflict has produced some of the most horrible examples of brutality. The recent slaying of Emmett Till in Mississippi is a case in point. The editors of Look are convinced that they are presenting here, for the first time, the real story of that killing -- the story no jury heard and no newspaper reader saw.

Disclosed here is the true account of the slaying in Mississippi of a Negro youth named Emmett Till.

Last September in Sumner, Miss., a petit jury found the youth's admitted abductors not guilty of murder. In November, in Greenwood, a grand jury declined to indict them for kidnapping.

Of the murder trial, the Memphis Commercial Appeal said: "Evidence necessary for convicting on a murder charge was lacking." But with truth absent, hypocrisy and myth have flourished. Now, hypocrisy can be exposed; myth dispelled. Here are the facts.

Carolyn Holloway Bryant is 21, five feet tall, weighs 103 pounds. An Irish girl, with black hair and black eyes, she is a small farmer's daughter who, at 17, quit high school at Indianola, Miss., to marry a soldier, Roy Bryant, then 20, now 24. The couple have two boys, three and two; and they operate a store at a dusty crossroads called Money: post office, filling station and three stores clustered around a school and a gin, and set in the vast, lonely cotton patch that is the Mississippi Delta.

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