14yr Old Boy Lynched 65yrs Ago

65 years ago a 14-year-old, Emmett Till was lynched after allegedly whistling at a white woman four days earlier.

While visiting with his cousins in Mississippi, they entered a nearby store to buy candy. The white woman behind the counter, Carolyn Bryant, claimed that Till grabbed her, made lewd advances and wolf-whistled at her.

Carolyn’s husband, Roy, returned from a business trip a few days later and heard how Emmett allegedly spoke to his wife. Enraged, he went to the home of Till’s great uncle demanding to see him. They forced Emmett into their car, beat him and shot him in the head. The men were tried for murder, but an all-white male jury acquitted them.

Till’s murder and open casket funeral galvanized the emerging civil rights movements. In 2017, Carolyn Bryant recanted her testimony, admitting that Till had never touched, threatened or harassed her.