0:00:05.551,0:00:12.827 " I know the one thing that we did right [br]was the day we started to fight. Keep 0:00:12.827,0:00:26.350 "your eyes on the prize. Hold on. Hold on.[br]Keep your eyes on the prize, hold on.." 0:00:33.445,0:00:40.107 - On August 21st, 1955 two teenagers from [br]Chicago boarded a train and traveled south 0:00:40.107,0:00:42.138 to visit family in Mississippi. 0:00:42.858,0:00:46.368 - We was going down there to pick some [br](inaudible). I'd never picked any 0:00:46.368,0:00:50.281 (inaudible) before and I was looking [br]to do that because I told my mother 0:00:50.281,0:00:53.541 that I could pick 200 pounds [br]and she told me I couldn't, 0:00:53.541,0:00:54.445 you know. 0:00:54.890,0:00:57.971 So you usually go down there [br]looking for a good time, you know. 0:00:58.413,0:01:02.420 - For more than a year, racial tensions [br]in the South had been higher than 0:01:02.420,0:01:06.279 usual. Since the Supreme Court[br]ruled in Brown Vs. Board of 0:01:06.279,0:01:09.661 Education, that segregated [br]schools were unconstitutional. 0:01:16.370,0:01:19.358 The decision touched a raw nerve [br]in the white South and many 0:01:19.358,0:01:21.890 organized to preserve white supremacy. 0:01:28.634,0:01:32.598 For years groups like the Ku [br]Klux Klan practiced terrorism. 0:01:33.687,0:01:37.396 Despite national Black protests, [br]public murders of Blacks were 0:01:37.396,0:01:40.207 common and the mobs who [br]committed them went unpunished. 0:01:41.322,0:01:45.299 In the previous seventy years, there had [br]been more than five hundred documented 0:01:45.299,0:01:47.197 lynchings in Mississippi alone. 0:01:49.719,0:01:53.919 Coming from Chicago, Curtis Jones [br]and his cousin Emmett Till had little 0:01:53.919,0:01:57.705 sense of the world they were entering [br]when they arrived in Money, Mississippi. 0:01:57.705,0:02:02.902 Emmett Till at the time, he was fourteen [br]years old, had just graduated out of 0:02:02.902,0:02:04.049 grammar school. 0:02:04.049,0:02:08.789 He had some picture of white kids [br]that he had graduate from. 0:02:08.789,0:02:11.235 That was you know, female and male. 0:02:11.235,0:02:14.789 So he told the boys down there, [br]you know, that gather around the store 0:02:14.789,0:02:19.420 so they must have been around about[br]maybe ten to twelve, you know 0:02:19.420,0:02:23.589 youngsters around there. That the [br]girls was his girlfriend, you know. 0:02:23.589,0:02:28.458 So one of the local boys said[br]hey, there's a girl in that store there. 0:02:28.458,0:02:31.992 He said " I bet you won't go in [br]there and talk to her." You know. 0:02:31.992,0:02:33.977 So he went in there [br]to get some candy. 0:02:33.977,0:02:39.536 So when he was leaving out the store,[br]after buying the candy, he told her 0:02:39.536,0:02:40.675 "Bye baby". 0:02:41.706,0:02:49.878 And the next thing I know, one of the[br]boys came up to me and say, "Say man, 0:02:49.878,0:02:55.241 "you got a crazy cousin. He just went in [br]there and said bye to that white woman." 0:02:56.213,0:03:01.370 And that's when this man I was [br]playing checkers with-this older 0:03:01.370,0:03:04.584 man- I guess he must have been around[br]about sixty or seventy. He jumps straight 0:03:04.584,0:03:10.696 up and say "Boy, say y'all about to get [br]out of here, say that lady'll come out of 0:03:10.696,0:03:13.010 "that store and blow your brains off." 0:03:19.409,0:03:24.454 - This is Moses Wright. I am [br]the uncle of Emmitt Lewis Till. 0:03:24.454,0:03:31.931 Sunday morning, about two-thirty, [br]someone called at the door, and 0:03:31.931,0:03:35.293 I said, "Who is it?' [br]And he said "This 0:03:35.293,0:03:43.202 "is Mr. Bryant. I want to [br]talk with you and the boy. 0:03:43.935,0:03:50.336 And when I open this door,[br]that was a man standing with 0:03:50.336,0:03:57.994 a pistol in one hand and a flashlight[br]in the other hand. And he asked me, 0:03:57.994,0:04:02.408 "Did I have two boys, that [br]are from Chicago?" 0:04:02.408,0:04:04.256 I told him, I have. 0:04:04.256,0:04:08.624 And he said "I want it, I want the [br]boy that done all that talk". 0:04:08.624,0:04:13.971 Then marched him to the car, [br]and they asked someone there 0:04:13.971,0:04:18.342 "Well this is the right boy?"[br]And the answer was, "Yeah." 0:04:18.342,0:04:20.834 And they drove toward Money. 0:04:21.941,0:04:26.473 - Four days later, Emmitt Till's body [br]was found in the Tallahatchie River. 0:04:27.676,0:04:32.073 - His body was so badly damaged[br]that we couldn't hardy just tell 0:04:32.073,0:04:36.136 who he was. But he happened to [br]have on a ring with his initial. 0:04:36.136,0:04:37.591 And that set it up. 0:04:38.467,0:04:41.967 - The body was shipped home,[br]back north to Chicago, where 0:04:41.967,0:04:45.225 Mamie Till Bradley insisted [br]on an open casket funeral. 0:04:45.819,0:04:50.109 "So all the world can see," she said,[br]"what they did to my boy." 0:04:50.109,0:05:21.401 ♪ (somber music) ♪ 0:05:21.401,0:05:25.494 Jet Magazine showed Till's [br]corpse. Beaten, mutilated, 0:05:25.494,0:05:27.266 shot through the head. 0:05:29.438,0:05:32.433 An entire generation of young,[br]Black people would remember 0:05:32.433,0:05:34.073 the horror of that photo. 0:05:34.073,0:05:48.574 ♪ (somber music) ♪ 0:05:50.336,0:05:54.665 Roy Bryant, husband of the woman[br]in the store and J.W, Milam, her 0:05:54.665,0:05:57.952 brother in law, were arrested [br]for the murder of Emmitt Till. 0:05:58.391,0:06:01.467 The trial was held in [br]nearby Sumner, Mississippi. 0:06:03.547,0:06:08.581 Black organizations like the NAACP and [br]The Black Press worked especially hard 0:06:08.581,0:06:11.059 to keep the case in the news, [br]to make an example of 0:06:11.059,0:06:13.085 southern racism for the world. 0:06:16.055,0:06:20.368 - I cover the courts in many [br]areas of this country, but 0:06:20.368,0:06:26.346 the Till case was unbelievable.[br]I mean I just didn't get the sense 0:06:26.346,0:06:28.727 of being a courtroom. 0:06:29.192,0:06:32.330 It was, first place segregated. 0:06:33.330,0:06:41.373 The Black Press sat at a bridge table[br]far off from the court and 0:06:41.373,0:06:44.830 the boy's mother came down. [br]They sat her there, at the 0:06:44.830,0:06:46.278 bridge table with us. 0:06:47.530,0:06:49.937 - What do you intend to do here today? 0:06:50.497,0:06:55.486 - To answer any questions that the [br]attorneys might ask me to answer. 0:06:57.070,0:06:59.395 - How do you think it's possible [br]to be of help to them? 0:06:59.395,0:07:04.090 - I don't know. I mean just by answering [br]any questions that they ask me. 0:07:05.566,0:07:07.891 - Do you have any evidence [br]bearing on this case. 0:07:09.588,0:07:12.049 - I do know that this is my son. 0:07:14.911,0:07:18.830 - The defense argued that the body found[br]tied to the cotton gin fan in the river 0:07:18.830,0:07:22.267 was so disfigured that it could[br]not be identified as Emmett Till. 0:07:24.114,0:07:27.078 The trial took five long, hot days. 0:07:27.078,0:07:30.703 The prosecution star witness[br]was Till's uncle, Moses Wright, 0:07:30.703,0:07:33.441 who testified despite [br]threats to his life. 0:07:34.268,0:07:36.433 - He was called up on too. 0:07:37.608,0:07:43.483 Could he see anybody in the courtroom[br]identified anybody in that courtroom 0:07:43.483,0:07:47.794 that come to his house that night[br]and got the Emmett Till out. 0:07:49.032,0:07:53.397 He stood up and there was a[br]tension in the courtroom 0:07:53.397,0:07:56.861 and he says in his broken language,[br]"Dar he." 0:07:58.234,0:08:00.346 - Dar he. There he is. 0:08:01.547,0:08:07.107 - I really didn't realize how brave[br]my grandfather Moss Wright was, 0:08:07.107,0:08:13.053 you know, but after I got older[br]I realized that he was a brave man. 0:08:13.053,0:08:17.583 He was a mighty brave man to[br]travel back down there, you know, 0:08:17.583,0:08:22.962 among all those hostile peoples[br]and testify, get up in court 0:08:22.962,0:08:27.941 and point his finger at a white man [br]and accuse him of murder. 0:08:28.906,0:08:33.205 - As the trial ended, a defense lawyer[br]told the jury he was quote, 0:08:33.205,0:08:38.016 "Sure every last Anglo-Saxon one of you[br]has the courage to free these men." 0:08:43.030,0:08:46.129 It took the jury an hour to [br]find the men not guilty. 0:08:46.129,0:08:51.673 (clapping and cheering) 0:08:51.673,0:08:56.927 Months later, for a fee of $4,000,[br]Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam 0:08:56.927,0:09:00.124 told their story to reporter [br]William Bradford Huie. 0:09:02.135,0:09:10.017 - Milam was startled at the belligerent [br]attitude or the fact that young Till 0:09:10.017,0:09:11.884 didn't appear to be afraid of him. 0:09:12.367,0:09:15.881 He'd gone and gotten him out of bed[br]and had him in the back of the truck 0:09:16.352,0:09:20.874 and young Till never realized [br]the danger he was in. 0:09:20.874,0:09:24.123 I'm quite sure that he never thought[br]these two men would kill him. 0:09:26.099,0:09:29.487 Or maybe he just in such a strange [br]environment, he really just 0:09:29.487,0:09:31.635 doesn't know what he's up against. 0:09:32.409,0:09:35.705 And it seems to the rational mind[br]today that it seems impossible 0:09:35.705,0:09:37.344 that they could have killed him. 0:09:38.061,0:09:42.862 But J. W. Milam looked up at me [br]and said, well when he told me 0:09:42.862,0:09:47.632 about this white girl he had he says,[br]"My friend this war's about done 0:09:47.632,0:09:50.040 in now," he says, "that's what we[br]have to fight to protect." 0:09:50.535,0:09:53.800 And he says, I just looked at him [br]and I said, "Boy you ain't 0:09:53.800,0:09:56.540 going to ever see the sun come up again." 0:09:57.760,0:10:01.371 - I believe that the whole [br]United States is mourning with me. 0:10:01.371,0:10:05.092 And if the death of my son could [br]mean something to the other 0:10:05.092,0:10:10.764 unfortunate people all over the world[br]then for him to have died a hero 0:10:10.764,0:10:14.313 would mean more to me than[br]for him to have just died. 0:10:14.695,0:10:17.908 - The fact that the Emmett Till [br]young Black man could be found 0:10:17.908,0:10:22.271 floating down the river in Mississippi[br]as indeed many had been done 0:10:22.271,0:10:28.317 over the years just set in concrete the[br]determination of people to move forward.