The Emmett Till Story | Black History You Weren’t Taught in School

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[00:00:00]Black history that you weren't taught in school. The place was Mississippi and the year was 1955.

[00:00:07]14-year-old Emmett Till entered a store [music] with some friends to buy some candy. While at the store, he encountered this woman who claimed that he had grabbed her hand and asked for a date. She was actually the co-owner of the store along with her husband and when he got word of it, he only wanted one thing, revenge. Four days later, that same man along with his half-brother kidnapped Emmett from his uncle's house. They took him to a barn and [music] tortured him. They gouged out his eyeballs, cut off his ear, and shot him in the head. They also tied this 75-pound fan around his neck with barbed wire. A whole three days had passed before some boys noticed a naked body while fishing. Emmett was so mutilated that he was only identified because of a ring he had on with his father's initials. His killers' trial only lasted five days, but there was overwhelming evidence to their guilt.

[00:00:58]For example, Emmett's uncle provided eyewitness testimony saying he saw them take Emmett. People said that they heard screams in that same barn he was killed.

[00:01:06]People said they saw a black boy in their truck. The fan was traced back to a plantation that they owned, but it didn't matter. These demons were so smug that they confessed to the crime a year later to a magazine. They just knew nothing would happen to them. And what's even worse is that the jury said they knew that these men did it. They just didn't think that mutilating and executing a black boy was worthy of jail time. As for Emmett's family, they famously refused to let a mortician touch the body and chose to have an open casket funeral with his mother saying, "Let the world see what they did to my boy." More than 50,000 people attended the viewing and images were published nationwide, forcing the country to see the evil of white supremacy. This was actually the same year that Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus citing Emmett Till as a big influence.

[00:01:53]Emmett's story also influenced and intensified this man's commitment to fighting segregation. Oh, and remember this woman? You know, the one that started all this mess? Well, despite testifying under oath that she feared for her life, she confessed 52 years later in 2007 to historian that her accusation was a lie.