The Blood of Emmett Till

The Emmett Till’s murder and trial inspires a “righteous revolt” (191) among black Americans. For many months after the trial, protests are held around the country to raise money for the NAACP. The money helps support such new actions as the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott. Blacks in Alabama decide they are tired of having to give up seats to whites, so they stop using the public buses, thus depriving the city of needed revenue. Till’s mother works tirelessly, traveling across the country and giving speeches with other leaders of the nascent civil rights movement. Many criticize President Eisenhower for failing to use federal power to intervene or enforce civil rights. Meanwhile, antilynching laws are routinely defeated by Southern politicians. The North’s moral power is also diminished by the continuing violence against blacks in cities like Chicago, where black Americans are denied fair access to housing. Soon after the Till trial, a Look magazine reporter pays Milam and Bryant to give their account of the murder, and they confess to the crime. They claim they did not initially intend to kill Till. It was only when Till taunted them with stories of having sex with white girls that they decided to kill him.