In August of 1955, Emmett Till, an African American teen from Chicago, Illinois, was visiting relatives in Mississippi. The 14-year-old went into a grocery store to buy candy and, while there, a white woman accused him of grabbing her. Witnesses alleged that he whistled at her.
Four days later, two white men lynched the teen. They kidnapped Emmett from his uncle’s home, then savagely beat him and shot him dead before dumping his body into a river.
The two men were acquitted by an all-white jury, but they later bragged publicly about having committed the crime.
Although no one was ever brought to justice for Emmett’s murder, his death made national headlines as an example of the brutal treatment black people experienced in the South. By the 1950s, the Civil War—which led to the end of slavery—had been over for nearly a century. Yet in the South, where Jim Crow laws and customs prevailed, violence against blacks was a way of life.
Widely published photos of Emmett’s funeral, which showed his horribly disfigured face, stunned Americans. His death helped galvanize support for the civil rights movement, which was just beginning to gather steam. In the years to follow, the passage of several landmark laws would help bring greater racial equality to African Americans. However, as with the LGBTQ community, discrimination is still widespread in the U.S., and many Americans say more work needs to be done.