top of page
Interesting Facts
Emmett Till went by the nickname Bobo
He never knew his biological father who was a private in the United States Army during World War II
Those who knew Emmett best described him as a responsible, funny, and a very high spirited child
He was stricken with polio at the age of 5, but managed to make a full recovery, he suffered a slight stutter that remained with him for the rest of his life
Carolyn Bryant, her husband Roy Bryant, and his half brother J.W. Milan were the ones who kidnapped and brutally murdered Emmett
Emmett grew up in a middle class black neighborhood on Chicago's South Side
August 19, 1955 was the day before Till left with his uncle and cousin for Mississippi to visit there for a few days. Mamie Till gave Emmett his father's ring, engraved with the initials "L.T." The next day she drove him to the 63rd Street station in Chicago. They kissed goodbye, and Till boarded a southbound train headed for Mississippi. It was the last time they ever saw each other.
August 28, 1955 was when Emmett was kidnapped from his uncles house by Carolyn Bryant, her husband Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milan who forced Emmett to 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 eyes, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.
Three days later, his corpse was recovered but was so disfigured that Mose Wright Emmetts uncle could only identify it by his fathers ring on his finger.
Less than two weeks after Emmett’s body was buried, Milam and Bryant went on trial in a segregated courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi. There were few witnesses besides Mose Wright, who positively identified the defendants as Emmett’s killers.
On September 23, the all-white jury deliberated for less than an hour before issuing a verdict of “not guilty,” explaining that they believed the state had failed to prove the identity of the body.
A few days after the murder Carolyn explained that everything she said Emmett did was not true.
bottom of page