Milam were acquitted of murder charges, but eventually confessed in an interview with a magazine. And all a white woman had to say was, "That nigger kinda looked at me or sassed me." Donham was quiet about her. The photos of Emmett Till's mutilated body stunned the nation. He just loved jokes. ), but ain't gonna be no love nest between black and white folk. While whites begrudgingly recognized African Americans, they were unwilling to accept them as social and racial equals. They would just go into a faint. The next morning, Emmett and his mother grabbed his bags and rushed off to the 63rd Street station. When the black magazineJetran photos of the body, black Americans across the country shuddered. Fred Grabbe's story: Background, what happened, and where is he today? One-way train fare of $11.10 took them to a different world. He kind of scolded me for saying something like that. Friday. Mrs. Lou Emma Allen William Bicket, INTERNS Description. It was just a magnificent reaction to a very ugly thing that had taken place in this country. He was charged $750 for this crime and served three years probation. Rose Jourdain, Journalist:I think black peoples' reaction was so visceral. And I guess to me it didn't happen. Betty Pearson:I do believe that nationally, or at least across the South, the Emmett Till trial and the result of that trial somehow spurred the Civil Rights Movement. Ernest Withers, Photographer:The man had laid it out that "We got 22 seats over here for you white boys. Now, with the eyes of the nation turning to Mississippi, the state appointed a special prosecutor and filed charges. I said, "I haven't signed anything, and I haven't made any promises, and if you can't open those box -- that box, I can,", Harry Caise, Mortician:And we opened the casket, there was a terrible odor that came from the body because the body had been in the water and began to deteriorate. Ah, it is, 'yes, ma'am' and 'no, ma'am', 'yes, sir' and 'no, sir'. Most white people, I think, had had convinced themselves that this was a defensible social system in which they lived. Milam was at a store in nearby Minter City when the Leflore County sheriff caught up with him. Narrator:Emmett rode the Illinois Central 16 hours out of Chicago to the Mississippi Delta. John E. Allen, Inc. Ah, they had the ceiling fans that were only stirring the air up, making it hotter when it reached your body. I can remember when my father died, Sammy, the black man who worked for him was there and I threw my arms around his neck. . Wheeler Parker:We all got a-scared and someone said, "She's going to get a pistol." Margaret Crimmins Her then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Two rooms about 12 feet square. Emmett's mother decides to have an open casket funeral. So I told 'em what I saw. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. Most were men who had been accused of associating with white women. And said they wanted the boy that did the talk at Money. They brought their children, picnic baskets and ice cream cones. Milam and Roy were later arrested for the murder. But there, in the searing heat of the Delta courtroom, the 64-year old sharecropper had his say. Clara Davis, Mississippi resident Mr. Rayner asked me, he said "Do you want me to touch the body up?" Roy Bryant was one of the people indicted for murder in 1955. Narrator:Reports of the acquittal made front page headlines across the United States, and set off an international firestorm. (Laughs) And they just tried to ruin the thing. Interviewer: And Mrs. Bryant? Interviewer: Have you studied the case by reading the papers perhaps? Unable to find work, Roy took his family to East Texas and attended welding school. The store was located at one end of the main street in the tiny town of Money, the heart of the cotton-growing Mississippi Delta. Milam calmly smokes a cigar as his wife mugs for the camera, after he and his half-brother, Roy Bryant, were acquitted of having murdered Emmet Louis Till . In the summer of 1955, Roy and Milam abducted a 14-years-old African American boy named Emmett Till at gunpoint from his great uncle's home in Money, Mississippi. We don't mix 'em down here. Tuko.co.ke featured an informative article about the Somali Canadian singer that has disappeared from the limelight for quite some time. He did a few welding jobs but eventually returned to the grocery business. Roy died of cancer in September 1994. Who is Roy Bryant and J.W Milam? His family had worked cotton for generations, but this trip would be Emmett's introduction to the Delta, known as "the most southern place on earth.". Mamie Till Mobley, Mother:I saw a hole, which I presumed, was a bullet hole and I could look through that hole and see daylight on the other side. The Karla Brown story: What happened and the latest updates. Narrator:With Sheriff Strider and courtroom sentiment clearly on the side of the defendants, reporters began their own desperate search for witnesses. Despite thousands of letters protesting Mississippi's handling of the murder, President Dwight Eisenhower and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ruled out a federal investigation. Milam and Roy Bryant were arrested on a kidnapping charge in 1955, but a grand jury failed to indict them. Milam, left, and Roy Bryant, right, sit with their wives in a courtroom in 1955. Roy Bryant and J.W. Black Man: I don't know whether they should or not. If there was a group there, Emmett was in front. As if this was either the last straw or maybe it was the spark. Victim photography protests injustice and preserves the victims names and stories. Moses Wright, description of kidnapping:So we marched around through two rooms and I found the boy in the third room in the bed with my baby boy and they told him to get up and put his clothes on. As I kept looking, I saw a hole, which I presumed was a bullet hole and I could look through that hole and see daylight on the other side. The men later admitted to the killing in a 1956 interview with Look magazine. Mamie Till:He was running up the steps to try to make it to the train and I said, "Emmett, or Beau" -- I called him Beau, I said, "Where are you going? Emmett was a Black boy visiting family in Mississippi. Milam were. I said "Who!?" You couldn't seeand when they left, I was still afraid and so I'm waitin' for them to come back. Milam and Roy Bryant, who confessed to Huie that they murdered Till. I saw that his tongue was choked out. Black Man: No sir. Shortly after the men were acquitted, they sold their story for $4,000 to reporter William Bradford Huie. That these kinds of things were not of their generation, that they no longer happened in America. She died on January 6, 2003 at the age of 81. James Eastland, Senator:You are not going to permit the NAACP to take over your schools. Carolyn and Roy Bryant had two children, Lamar and Roy Bryant Jr. Narrator:Strider consigned black reporters and Detroit Congressman Charles Diggs to a card table on the sidelines. However, he still claimed that he did not murder Emmett Till. Till's death was a spark that helped mobilize thecivilrights movement. She joins us in discussion. He would never again live in Mississippi. Wheeler Parker:We went to South, near the beginning of cotton-picking time, late August, and we picked cotton for a half a day and we would go swimming, run the snakes out the river. A high school dropout, she won two beauty contests and married Roy Bryant, an ex-soldier. Gode Davis Trudy Williams Helen R. Russell Donham's husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother JW Milam were tried on murder charges about a month after the teenager was killed, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. Bryant died on September 1, 1994 about 14 years after Milam. Despite being well-known because of their parent's case, their whereabouts are not public. Who was Roys wife? "Hell no, that's shit you talking." Allan M. Jalon, Los Angeles Times, "1955 Killing Sparked Civil Rights Revolution Emmett Till: South's Legend and Legacy" Are you searching for more information about KNaan? In August 1955, a 14-year-oldBlack boyallegedly flirted with a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. White Man: Well sir, I'll tell ya' right now, if he gets justice they'll turn him a loose. Bryant and Milam had already been rounded up as murder suspects, and Southern papers were decrying the "savage crime." In just over an hour, the jury returned. Ryan was also interviewed for the same program but refused to discuss the case. Notes taken during your interview are added to your application for review. Robert E. Luckett, Jr. It was just it just -- oh, it -- it was a mess. You couldn't see. I mean it's -- I mean someone come and stand over you with a pistol in one hand and a flashlight and you're 16 years old it's a terrifying experience, very terrifying. But he turned around and he came back and he kissed me good-bye and he said, "Here. Special Collections, University of Mississippi Libraries William Winter:When one drives through the lowest hills and looks out at the sweep of those fields below, flat as a pancake as far as the eye could see, it's breath taking. Mamie Till Mobley At some point, Roy attempted to join the police force. And when I began to make the announcement that Emmett had been found and how he was found, the whole house began to scream and to cry. Rev. Richard Heard, Classmate:When we first met, we were in gym in Mr. Long's gym period. Roy Bryant, an ex-soldier, owned and ran Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market in the town of Money. Stock Footage, News Anchor Reports Till Verdict tape:In the Emmett Till Murder trial, the all white jury has acquitted the two white defendants accused of killing the 14-year-old Negro youth. Contributors to Civil Rights groups soared. Stock Footage, Interview with Milam & Bryant after the Verdict:Interviewer: How do you folks feel now that it's all over? Discover the fascinating story of this iconic American garment. June 24, 2022 - 12:55 BST Hannah Hargrave. Roy and his wife migrated to Indianola, Mississippi, where Bryant got a job as a mechanic. Narrator:Fifty thousand people in Chicago had seen Emmett Till's corpse with their own eyes. And I heard a voice say, "Yes" and they drove off toward Money with him. Narrator:In Chicago, a desperate Mamie Till notified the local newspapers of Emmett's disappearance. A Firelight Media production for American Experience She said, "Mr. Rayner, I want to see my son.". Their trial, where he was cleared, gained international attention and sparked a Civil Rights movement that brought about massive changes. I saw him he had khaki pants on, had a green nylon shirt, and a .45 on his side. When Roy and J. W. returned, one of the kids at the scene told them what had occurred. Willie Reed, Mississippi Resident:And I was in the cotton field and I was pickin', I was pickin' cotton, pickin' cotton, and I looked across the field and there was about seven or eight peoples comin' across the field towards me, was white and black comin' that way. 2003 WGBH Educational Foundation I noticed that the right eye was lying on midway his cheek, I noticed that his nose had been broken like somebody took a meat chopper and chopped his nose in several places. And, Beau if you see a white woman coming down the street, you get off the sidewalk and drop your head. Milam's truck out. It is now.". J.W. A German bullet tore clear through his chest; his body bears "multiple shrapnel wounds." Of his medals, he cherishes one: combat infantryman's badge. Milam sold their story to a reporter forLook Magazinefor $4,000. The Center for Documentary Studies, Duke University In the Deep Southwhere the separation between blacks and whites was defined by law,Roy and his half-brother decided Emmettneeded to be taught a lesson. According to her, she was scared to death. Don't even look at her. Milam? Clarence Strider Jr.:People are used to doin' thang normal around here. In 1955, J.W. Biography and latest updates. People die, pictures don't. Pictures keep dead people alive. Milam turned to Moses Wright. Mamie Till:I thought that pretty soon the crowd would die down. Card:Mamie Till returned to Chicago, remarried, taught public school for 24 years, and continued to speak publicly about her son's murder. William Bicket, POST PRODUCTION I mean -- I mean someone come and stand over you with a pistol in one hand and a flashlight and you're 16 years old; it's a terrifying experience. Le Monde Narrator:Mamie Carthan arrived in Chicago at the age of two. Back of the house is a tool shed. I wouldn't get any help carrying this load. Wheeler Parker, Emmett Till's cousin During the trial, the families arrived with their sons dressed in their Sunday best,Roy and J.W. He was just 13 just a few weeks before we went down there. Carolyn Bryant, who set off the lynching of Emmett Till by accusing the Black teen of improper advances in 1955, rests her head on her husband Roy Bryant's shoulder on Sept. 22, 1955, after she . You just as well to get ready to go." According to the interview Milam and Bryant gave to Huie, Milam killed Emmett with his . Your interview will be conducted by an admission counselor or an Admission Fellow, a select group of our upperclass students. Evidence indicated a woman, Donham, who identified the young boy to the men who later killed him. Of her accusation that Till had physically and verbally harassed her, she told Tyson, according to Vanity Fair:. Also a trained anthropologist, Hurston collected folklore throughout the South and Caribbean reclaiming, honoring and celebrating Black life on its own terms. He had served in World War II and received combat medals. Clenora Hudson-Weems They thought that they, you know, could just take over, but they didn't. Willie Reed:Well, when you walked in that courtroom and you know what you -- that you're going testify. Takagi Narrator:Tallahatchie county sheriff and plantation owner Clarence Strider was responsible for locating witnesses and gathering evidence against Bryant and Milam. Years later, both men would return to Mississippi. Milam, who were found not guilty in a trial for the 1955 murder of black teenager Emmett Till, confess in an article in Look magazine published Jan. 24, 1956. Though exactly what happened next is unconfirmed. I fired and the Chicago boy twisted around and caught it right in his ear. Wheeler Parker:It was like a nightmare. Soundprint Media Center We were just all good friends. Milam and Roy Bryant, two white men from Mississippi who were. Milam as the men who abducted Till, but the all-white, all-male jury acquitted them. Shortly afterwards, the defendants sold their story, includingtheir tale of how they murdered Till, to a journalist. We went to grammar school together. This situation has brought problems, it has created challenges, but most important of all, it has inspired a social system to meet the challenge. Bryant's then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Unfortunately, to no one's surprise, they were acquitted by an all-white, male jury. Carolyn Bryant,the daughter of a plantation manager and a nurse, hailed from Indianola, Mississippi, the nucleus of the segregationist and supremacist white Citizens' Councils. FILE - In this Sept. 23, 1955, file photo. Hilary Goldstein Some reporters talked about Roy and Carolyn's "handsome looks" and J. W.'s tall stature and big cigars. Moyosore Pau Pau Bryant died in 1994, while Milam died in 1981. Roy Bryant and J.W. Howard and author Devery Anderson each concluded that Roy Bryant learned of what happened at the store from someone other than his wife. Table of Biography [ show] Early life Roy Bryant was born on January 24, 1931, in Money, Mississippi, United States of America. Stephen J. Whitfield The next year Bryant and Milan were paid between $3600 and $4000 for an interview with Look magazine. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. And he looked at me and he said, "Aw, Mama." 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