9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 " I know the one thing that we did right [br]was the day we started to fight. Keep 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "your eyes on the prize. Hold on. Hold on.[br]Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - On August 21st, 1955 two teenagers from [br]Chicago boarded a train and traveled south 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 to visit family in Mississippi. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - We was going down there to pick some [br](inaudible). I'd never picked any 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (inaudible) before and I was looking [br]to do that because I told my mother 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that I could pick 200 pounds [br]and she told me I couldn't , 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you know. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So you usually go down there [br]looking for a good time, you know. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - For more than a year, racial tensions [br]in the South had been higher than 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 usual. Since the Supreme Court[br]ruled in Brown Vs. Board of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Education, that segregated [br]schools were unconstitutional. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The decision touched a raw nerve [br]in the white South and many 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 organized to preserve white supremacy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 For years groups like the Ku [br]Klux Klan practiced terrorism. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Despite national black protests, [br]public murders of blacks were 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 common and the (inaudible) who [br]committed them went unpunished. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 In the previous seventy years, there had [br]been more than five hundred documented 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 lynchings in Mississippi alone. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Coming from Chicago, Curtis Jones [br]and his cousin Emmett Till had little 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 sense of the world they were entering [br]when they arrived in Money, Mississippi. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Emmett Till at the time, he was fourteen [br]years old, had just graduated out of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 grammar school. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He had some picture of white kids [br]that he had graduate from. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 That was you know, female and male. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So he told the boys down there,[br]hey you know, (inaudible) the store. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So it must have been around about[br]maybe ten to twelve, you know 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 youngsters around there. That the [br]girls was his girlfriend, you know. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So one of the local boys said[br]hey, there's a girl in that store 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 there. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He said " I bet you won't go in [br]there and talk to her." You know. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So he went in there [br]to get some candy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 So when he was leaving out the store,[br]after buying the candy, he told her 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Bye baby". 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And the next thing I know, one of the[br]boys came up to me and say, "Say man, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "you got a crazy cousin. He just went in [br]there and said bye to that white woman." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that's when this man I was [br]playing checkers with-this older 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 man- I guess he must have been around[br]about sixty or seventy. He jumps straight 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 up and say "Boy, say y'all about to get [br]out of here, say that lady'll come out of 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "that store and blow your brains off." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - This is Moses Wright. I am [br]the uncle of Emmitt Lewis Till. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Sunday morning, about two-thirty, [br]someone called at the door, and 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I said, "Who is it?' [br]And he said "This 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "is Mr.Bryant. I want to [br]talk with you and the boy. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And when I open this door,[br]that was a man standing with 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 pistol in one hand and a flashlight[br]in the other hand. And he asked me, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Did I have two boys, that [br]are from Chicago?" 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I told him, I have. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And he said "I want it, I want the [br]boy that done all that talk". 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Then marched him to the car, [br]and they asked someone there 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Well this is the right boy?"[br]And the answer was "Yeah." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And they drove toward Money. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - Four days later, Emmitt Till's body [br]was found in the Tallahatchie River. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - His body was so badly damaged[br]that we couldn't hardy just tell 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who he was. But he happened to [br]have on a ring with his initial. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And that set it up. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - The body was shipped home,[br]back north to Chicago, where 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Mamie Till Bradley insisted [br]on an open casket funeral. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "So all the world can see," she said.[br]"What they did to my boy." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 “♪ (upbeat music) ♪” 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Jet Magazine showed Till's [br]corpse. Beaten, mutilated, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 shot through the head. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 An entire generation of young,[br]black people would remember 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the horror of that photo. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 “♪ (somber music) ♪” 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Roy Bryant, husband of the woman[br]in the store. And J.W, MIlam, her 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 brother in law, were arrested [br]for the murder of Emmitt Till. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The trial was held in [br]nearby Sumner Mississippi. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Black organizations like the NAACP and [br]The Black Press worked especially hard. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 To keep the case in the news, to make [br]an example of southern racism for 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the world. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - I cover the courts in many [br]areas of this country, but 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the Till case was unbelievable.[br]I mean I just didn't get the sense 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 of being a courtroom. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It was, first place segregated. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The Black Press sat at a bridge table[br]far off from the court. And the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 boys mother came down. [br]They sat her there, at the 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 bridge table with us. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - What do you intend to do here today? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - To answer any questions that the [br]attorneys might ask me to answer. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - How do you think it's possible [br]to be of help to them? 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - I don't know. I mean just by answering [br]any questions that they ask me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - Do you have any evidence [br]bearing on this case. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - I do know that this is my son. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - The defense argued that the body found[br]tied to the cotton gin fan in the river 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 was so disfigured that it could[br]not be identified as Emmett Till. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The trial took five long, hot days. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 The prosecution star witness[br]was Till's uncle, Moses Wright, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 who testified despite [br]threats to his life. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - He was called up on too. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Could he see anybody in the courtroom[br]identified anybody in that courtroom 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that come to his house that night[br]and got the (inaudible) out. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He stood up and there was a[br]tension in the courtroom 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and he says in his broken language,[br]"Dar he." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - Dar he. There he is. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - I really didn't realize how brave[br]my grandfather Moss Wright was, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 you know, but after I got older[br]I realized that he was a brave man. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He was a mighty brave man to[br]travel back down there, you know, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 among all those hostile peoples[br]and testify, get up in court 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and point his finger at a white man [br]and accuse him of murder. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - As the trial ended, a defense lawyer[br]told the jury he was quote, 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "Sure every last Anglo-Saxon one of you[br]has the courage to free these men." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 It took the jury an hour to [br]find the man not guilty. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 (clapping and cheering) 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Months later, for a fee of $4,000,[br]Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 told their story to reporter [br]William Bradford Huie. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - Milam was startled at the belligerent [br]attitude or the fact that young Till 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 didn't appear to be afraid of him. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 He'd gone and gotten him out of bed[br]and had him in the back of the truck 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 and young Till never realized [br]the danger he was in. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I'm quite sure that he never thought[br]these two men would kill him. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 Or maybe he just in such a strange [br]environment, he really just 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 doesn't know what he's up against. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And it seems to the rational minded[br]today that it seems impossible 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 that they could have killed him. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 But (inaudible) looked up at me [br]and said, "Well when he told me 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "about this white girl he had he says[br]my friend this war's about done 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 "In now, he says, that's what we[br]have to fight to protect." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 I just looked at him and I said,[br]"Boy you ain't going to ever see 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 the sun come up again." 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - I believe that the whole [br]United States is mourning with me. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 And if the death of my son could [br]mean something to the other 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 unfortunate people all over the world[br]then for him to have died a hero 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 would mean more to me than[br]for him to have just died. 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 - The fact that the Emmett Till [br]young Black man could be found 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 floating down the river in Mississippi[br]as indeed many had been done 9:59:59.000,9:59:59.000 over the years just set i concrete the[br]determination of people to move forward.