Emmett Till

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Bill to Award Top Civilian Honor to Emmett Till Clears House

Congressional Gold Medal will recognize victim's mother, as well

(Newser) - The House unanimously passed a bill Wednesday to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to Emmett Till, the Chicago teenager murdered by white supremacists in the 1950s, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, the AP reports. The bill, which passed the Senate in January, is meant to honor Till and his...

Emmett Till Takes His Place in Greenwood
City Unveils
Emmett Till
Statue
Oct 22, 2022 3:00 PM CDT

City Unveils Emmett Till Statue

Applause, tears greet tribute to 1955 Mississippi lynching victim

(Newser) - Hundreds of people applauded—and some wiped away tears—as a Mississippi community unveiled a larger-than-life statue of Emmett Till on Friday, not far from where white men kidnapped and killed the Black teenager over accusations he had flirted with a white woman in a country store. "Change has...

Grand Jury Declines to Indict Woman in Emmett Till Case

After discovery of 1955 warrant, relatives urged authorities to detain Carolyn Bryant Donham

(Newser) - Update: A grand jury in Mississippi has declined to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham, the 87-year-old woman whose accusations led to the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955. District Attorney Dewayne Richardson said in a statement that a grand jury heard seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses...

Feeling Sorry for Elderly Accuser of Emmett Till? Don't

Charles Blow takes on Carolyn Bryant Donham after parts of her unpublished memoir leak

(Newser) - If you're tempted to feel moved by the words written in a recently leaked unpublished memoir by Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman who accused Black teen Emmett Till of untoward advances, leading to his murder, just ... don't, according to Charles Blow. In his latest op-ed for the...

Emmett Till Accuser: I Tried to Help Him

Unpublished memoir has been leaked

(Newser) - The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of making improper advances before he was lynched in Mississippi in 1955 says she neither identified him to the killers nor wanted him murdered. In an unpublished memoir obtained by the AP , Carolyn Bryant Donham says she was unaware of what...

Emmett Till's Family Finds 1955 Warrant, Calls for Arrest

Carolyn Bryant Donham is in her 80s now

(Newser) - A team searching a Mississippi courthouse basement for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant charging a white woman in his 1955 kidnapping, and relatives of the victim want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later, the AP reports. A warrant...

After 200 Attempts, US Has a Federal Anti-Lynching Law

'Lynching was pure terror,' President Biden says

(Newser) - Update: After almost 200 attempts over 120 years, the US has passed a law making lynching a federal hate crime. President Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act at a White House event with guests including Rev. Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Till's who witnessed the teenager's kidnapping...

Emmett Till's Family Is Told the Investigation Has Ended
Emmett Till's Relatives:
Reopen the Case
UPDATED
Mar 11, 2022 1:38 PM CST

Emmett Till's Relatives: Reopen the Case

Federal officials closed the investigation last year

(Newser) - Update: Relatives of Emmett Till joined with supporters Friday in asking federal authorities to reverse their decision to close an investigation of his 1955 lynching and instead prosecute a white woman at the center of the case from the very beginning. Relatives said they would present Mississippi authorities with a...

You Know About Emmett Till, but Not About the Barn

In a lengthy piece for the 'Atlantic,' Wright Thompson takes readers there

(Newser) - We know the story of Emmett Till, but the story we know is only a partial one, argues Wright Thompson in a lengthy piece for the Atlantic that revolves around one major gap: the barn in which the 14-year-old was murdered in 1955. Most people asked where Till was killed...

Home Emmett Till Never Returned to Is Now Protected

Chicago grants Emmett Till's South Side home landmark status

(Newser) - The Chicago home of Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose 1955 lynching galvanized the civil rights movement when his mother insisted his mutilated body be displayed in an open casket, has been granted landmark status. The City Council on Wednesday issued an ordinance that protects the South Side home from...

After Nearly 200 Attempts, Congress Makes Lynching a Federal Crime

65 years after the death of Emmett Till, 14

(Newser) - Sixty-five years after 14-year-old Emmett Till was lynched in Mississippi, the House has approved legislation designating lynching as a hate crime under federal law, the AP reports. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, introduced by Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush, comes 120 years after Congress first considered anti-lynching legislation and after dozens...

Marker No. 4 for Emmett Till Boasts New Fortifications

This sign is 500 pounds, made of steel, and covered in bulletproof glass to protect from vandals

(Newser) - Past markers for Emmett Till have been shot at, thrown in the Tallahatchie River, covered in graffiti, and doused in acid. Now, the fourth memorial at a Mississippi site for the black teen tortured and killed murdered in 1955 is in place, and it's been fortified against at...

Emmett Till Sign Will No Longer Be the Same

It's being replaced with a 500-lb. bulletproof version

(Newser) - A civil rights landmark that got some disturbing press this week is being replaced—with a bulletproof version, NBC News reports. The memorial to Emmett Till, the Mississippi teen tortured and murdered in 1955, recently appeared in an Instagram photo with three white University of Mississippi students holding guns. Now...

'Offensive' Photo Taken at Emmett Till Site Surfaces

3 Ole Miss students held guns in front of bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil-rights icon

(Newser) - Three University of Mississippi students have been suspended from their frat over a photo that shows them posing, two with guns, in front of a civil rights landmark honoring slain black teen Emmett Till . ProPublica and the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting report the suspension of Ben LeClere, John Lowe,...

Someone Made a 2-Mile Trek to Shoot Up This Sign

It's the 3rd version of the sign about Emmett Till's murder to be vandalized

(Newser) - The scene of an infamous criminal act has once again been vandalized. The New York Times charts the recent history of the sign that has marked the spot where Emmett Till's body was in 1955 pulled from the Tallahatchie River; the 14-year-old had been lynched after a white woman...

'New Information' Reopens Inquiry in Emmett Till's Murder

Following publication of a book in which Carolyn Donham says she lied when testifying against Till

(Newser) - The federal government has reopened its investigation into the slaying of Emmett Till, the black teen whose brutal killing in Mississippi shocked the world and helped inspire the civil rights movement more than 60 years ago. The Justice Department told Congress in a report in March it's reinvestigating Till'...

Cousin Who Saw Emmett Till Taken Before He Was Lynched Dies

Simeon Wright was 74

(Newser) - "They had come for Bobo," the Clarion-Ledger quotes Simeon Wright as writing in his memoir. "No begging, pleading, or payment was going to stop them." Wright, cousin of Emmett Till, died Monday in Illinois at the age of 74 following a battle with cancer, the Chicago ...

LeBron Responds to Racist Vandalism

'Being black in America is tough'

(Newser) - "No matter how much money you have, no matter how famous you are ... being black in America is tough," LeBron James said Wednesday in his first public comments since his Los Angeles home was vandalized with a racial slur . The Cleveland Cavaliers star told reporters his family was...

Why Non-White Artists Want Emmett Till Painting Destroyed

'Open Casket' is being called a 'mockery' and an 'injustice'

(Newser) - A painting featured in the Whitney Biennial, which opened last Friday in New York, is proving so controversial that not only is it sparking protests but fellow artists are outright calling for its destruction, the Guardian reports. The painting, Open Casket by Dana Schutz, is a depiction of Emmett Till'...

Family Calls for New Probe Into Emmett Till Lynching

A key witness is quoted in a new book as saying she lied

(Newser) - The horrific 1955 Mississippi slaying of Emmett Till, which helped trigger the modern civil rights movement, should be re-investigated now that a key witness is quoted as saying she lied about what the black teen said and did before he was lynched, Till's relatives say. The AP reports two...

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