Till

In 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy, left his home in Chicago (Illinois) to visit his family, who lived in the state of Mississippi. There, when he was in a store with his cousins, he was accused of disrespect by Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. This incident spread quickly and led to Emmett being captured by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, who beat him and threw him into the Tallahatchie River. A few days later, Mamie Till-Mobley, her mother, would receive her body in Chicago, completely disfigured and already in the process of decomposition due to the violence of the attacks. Angry but determined to turn that death into a turning point, Mamie gave him a funeral with an open coffin so that everyone could see what had been done to him. The media covered the story, shocking public opinion. On September 23rd of the same year, in a session lasting just over an hour, the jury acquitted the attackers. The sentence caused enormous outrage at a national level, drawing attention to the brutality and injustice of racism, boosting movements in favor of the rights of the African-American population.