1950s: A Decade of Conformity - The Story of Emmett Till

       An example of a man who paid the ultimate price for his refusal to conform to society’s expectations is the fourteen-year-old African American youth, Emmett Till.  On a visit to relatives in Money, Mississippi in August of 1955, Emmett Till, a boy from Chicago, allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant, the white woman behind the counter in the store where Emmett was purchasing refreshments on a hot summer day.  Emmett may not have understood the mentality of the Deep South’s Jim Crow laws and certainly did not foresee the consequences of his "inappropriate" gesture towards a white woman.   Although segregation existed everywhere within the United States including Chicago where Emmett resided, the white supremacist attitude towards African Americans in the Deep South was extremely severe.  African Americans were considered an inferior race of people and were treated as such.  If a black man encountered a white woman on a sidewalk, he was to step off allowing the woman to pass without even a look in her direction.  If he even glanced towards her, it was considered an act of aggression and the man would face consequences which usually included a beating from the white townspeople.  Because Emmett Till did much more than look at Carolyn Bryant, his act would have harsh repercussions.

      Although a whistle at an attractive woman by a teenage boy would seem to be an innocent juvenile act, it was perceived by Carolyn Bryant and her family to be as severe as a sexual assault.  Three days after Emmett Till’s adolescent act, he was dragged from his bed in the middle of the night by Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s husband, and J.W. Milam, Bryant’s half brother.  After he was taken to an abandoned barn where he was beaten and pistol-whipped by both men, Bryant and Milam took Emmett to the banks of the Tallahatchie River, shot Emmett in the head, and threw him in the river with an old cotton gin fan tied around his neck to help hold him under the water.  Bryant and Milam confessed their parts in the killing to Look magazine after their acquittal at trial, but made it more of an explanation than a confession, pointing the blame

for the murder on Emmett himself for not conceding his subordinate place in society.  According to PBS.org, Milam explained that they had no intentions of killing Emmett; however, even after beating him, Emmett would not holler or cry out.  Milam rationalized, “Well, what else could we do? He was hopeless.  I'm no bully; I never hurt a nigger in my life.  I like niggers -- in their place -- I know how to work 'em.  But I just decided it was time a few people got put on notice.  As long as I live and can do anything about it, niggers are gonna stay in their place.” But Emmett did not agree to his inferior status and would not concede to be “put in his place.”  Emmett Till was just fourteen years old, but he was as much a groundbreaker as Alan Freed because he brought national attention to the plight of southern African Americans.  He refused to yield to the expected subordinate role of African Americans in the south.  Unfortunately, his refusal to adhere to the established racial roles cost him his life.