How Emmitt Till's death changed America - Admission/Application Essay Example

The two men who were from two different counties. He was beaten in a brutal manner and one of his eyes gouged out before being shot in the head and then his body was thrown into the Tallahatchie River2. Emmett’s body was weighted with a heavy cotton gin fan that was approximated to be 70 pound (32 kg). The cotton gin fan was firmly tied around Emmett’s neck using a barbed wire. Several days after the incident, Till’s body which had been badly mutilated was retrieved from the river in the county of Tallahatchie.

At first when Mamie Till saw the mutilated body of her son, she could not believe because it did not look like that of a human being. Though horrified by what she saw, the mother had to identify her son’s body. She wondered why her son had to be tortured in a brutal manner. While still examining the body Mamie tried to imagine the experience of her son on that fateful night. She came up with a decision, which she thought it would help to transform the course of history in America. Till’s body was taken back to his home in Chicago and his mother who had struggle to raise him on her own insisted on holding a public funeral service.

She opted for an open casket, as she wanted to let the whole world know about the brutality of the killing. She wanted everyone to witness what she had seen. The killing of Emmett might have been just like several other lynching where most families buried their loved ones quietly and kept the rage and grief among themselves. Most of these incidences were done intentionally in order to keep the Negro in their rightful place. This was not the case with Emmett Till death because his mother Mamie Till exposed the brutality to the public.

She focused to share the incident with everyone. The murder of the young boy became international news event. During his funeral that was held in Chicago, several mourners were able to view Till’s body which had been badly mutilated. The black magazines and newspapers published the images of Emmett Till’s mutilated body, which resulted in popularity in the black support and sympathy of the white people across America. The black civil rights condition in Mississippi was scrutinized intensely and the state was greatly criticized by the newspapers countrywide.

At first, the local newspapers together with the law enforcement officials condemned the violence and demanded for justice. However, they later responded to the national criticism and became defensive of Mississippians. This later turned out to be the support of Emmett Till killers. Huge amount of press attention was attracted by the trial3. The accused Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam later confessed as having been involved in the kidnapping and murder. Even though the two admitted as being responsible for the incident, they did not consider themselves guilty or even that they had committed some wrong deed.

After being arrested, the Bryant and Milam were charged with murder case however, an all-white all-male jury acquitted the two quickly. The revelations later turned out that the jurors knew that Bryant and Milam were guilty. However, they did not believe in white individuals receiving death penalty or even life imprisonment for killing a black man. Several years later, jurors disputed this stating that they were convinced by the defense’