I said, "It's time for us to go." In this Sept. 23, 1955, file photo, J.W. Prince Harry: The 60 Minutes Interview Transcript. Jerry Mitchell Tracye A. Matthews, ARCHIVAL FILM Did Roy and Milam confess to the murder of Emmett Till? He was just 13 just a few weeks before we went down there. He could not have that, you know physical show of affection, of sharing grief, or whatever. And Emmett was a fun young man, just like any other young teenager. Kristin Lesko Ed Clark/TimePix John Herbers:The reaction of reporters from out of the South was one of just absolute amazement. "When people saw what had happened to my son, men stood up who had never stood up before.". "Emmett Till's shoe.". So, what is the singer's story, and where does he live today? Warren Hampton, Mississippi resident AP. Everybody knew we were under attack and that attack was symbolized by the attack on a 14-year-old boy. I was trying to exaggerate. From Boston to Los Angeles, black people packed meeting halls and spilled into the streets to hear Mamie Till tell her story. Interviewer: And Mrs. Bryant? 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. Get the latest on new films and digital content, learn about events in your area, and get your weekly fix of American history. On August 28, 1955, a 14-year-old African-American named Emmett Till was kidnapped from his relative's home in Mississippi by two adult white men, who brutally beat him to death. That took an awful lot of courage for him to get up there and do what he did. Narrator:Emmett rode the Illinois Central 16 hours out of Chicago to the Mississippi Delta. died, Juanita was. Narrator:Among African Americans, there was outright fear. And we've got four seats over here for you colored boys. William Pearson, THANKS TO Who was Roys wife? Magnolia Cooksey-Mathious:It was on a Sunday afternoon. He was 14, but he just turned 14. Clenora Hudson-Weems But he turned around and he came back and he kissed me good-bye and he said, "Here. And he looked at me and he said, "Aw, Mama." Mamie Till was in Chicago, surrounded by worried family and friends, when she was told that her only child was dead. Milam laid bare the racism that ruled Mississippi. Rose M. Compagine Moses Newson:That was a dramatic moment. I saw that his tongue was choked out. No one ever did time for the killing of the 14 year-old black boy from Chicago. From their roots in slavery to the Wild West, hippies, high fashion and hip-hop, jeans are the fabric on which the history of American ideology and politics is writ large. His half-brother J. W. followed him soon after. You could hear guns firing. Clarence Strider Jr., Son of Mississippi Sheriff:My dad called me and asked me did I have a boat in the river. Harry Caise, mortician So I said, "Naw." Robin Kelley Mamie Till:The verdict came in "not guilty". Then you look at all these white folks and everybody lookin' at you and they've got they frowns on their face and everything. Milam turned to Moses Wright. He gained popularity because of the brutal murder of Emmett Till. If a white person did something to you, you had no recourse at all. Richard Gardner It was the beginning of the focusing on the problems between the races in the Deep South that culminated in the ultimate Civil Rights battles of the, of the rest of the 50s and, and, and into the 60s. Other customers were sitting outside, talking and playing checkers in the cool of the shade. She said, "Mr. Rayner, I want to see my son.". He was born two years after his older brother Roy and is believed to be the last son Carolyn ever bore. What was Roy Bryants ethnicity? However, he married Vera Jo Orman later in life. He, along with his half-brother J.W. And it made an awful lot of people realize that they themselves had to get involved and do something. Warren Hampton, Mississippi Resident:I was playin' beside the road and I saw Mr. Milam in the truck coming by and it had a, had a cover over the door, we called a tarpaulin, and I heard somebody hollerin' on the truck. - The graves of Roy Bryant & J.W. I think he had decided that he was going to do it no matter what happened. A high school dropout, she won two beauty contests and married Roy Bryant, an ex-soldier. Milam, showed up armed at the rural Leflore County home of Till's great-uncle, Mose Wright, looking for the youth. Those who have not been to the Delta find themselves gasping at the sight as they come over the lowest hills and see that expanse of flat agricultural land. They thought that they, you know, could just take over, but they didn't. Emmett, her only child, was four years old. By Jennifer Tisdale. At a church on the South Side of Chicago, Emmett Till's mutilated body would be on display for all to see. To earn extra cash, Roy worked as a trucker with his half-brother J. W. Milam, an imposing man of six-feet-two inches, weighing 235 pounds. Narrator:Reports of the acquittal made front page headlines across the United States, and set off an international firestorm. In 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy, was kidnapped, tortured and killed in Mississippi after he allegedly whistled at a white woman. The photos of Emmett Till's mutilated body stunned the nation. Helen R. Russell . Unfortunately, Vera passed away on May 2, 2012, at 79. In the minds of many, they livein history as the trio that got away with murder. Local stores collected $10,000 in countertop jars for Bryant and Milam. All rights reserved. Frightened, Emmett and his group left. The Till case had become a major international news story. Gode Davis And as she went to the car, we all jumped in my uncle's car. (Laughs) It was somethin'. Allan M. Jalon, Los Angeles Times, "1955 Killing Sparked Civil Rights Revolution Emmett Till: South's Legend and Legacy" Meanwhile, African American spectators were relegated to the back and looked on in fear. On the eveningof August 24, 1955, Emmett Till went with his cousins and some friends to Bryant's Grocery for refreshments after picking cotton in the hot sun. Sulyn Silbar, CONSULTANTS Unfortunately, to no one's surprise, they were acquitted by an all-white, male jury. We walked him in there and took turns smashing him across the head with the .45. He was born on January 24, 1931, and died in September 1994 of cancer. David Lee Jordan, Mississippi State Senator:When white womens was on the streets you had to get off of the street. 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. Their trial, where he was cleared, gained international attention and sparked a Civil Rights movement that brought about massive changes. Mamie Till Mobley, Emmett Till's mother I saw him he had khaki pants on, had a green nylon shirt, and a .45 on his side. Mrs. Bryant: I feel fine. Stephen J. Whitfield in starched white shirts while their wives donned cotton dresses. Milam beat Till almost to death, gouged out one of his eyes, shot him in the head and then dumped his body, weighted by an enormous cotton-gin fan tied with barbed wire, into the . And I heard a voice say, "Yes" and they drove off toward Money with him. The church was very calm; the line was very orderly. The next year Bryant and Milan were paid between $3600 and $4000 for an interview with Look magazine. Narrator:With Sheriff Strider and courtroom sentiment clearly on the side of the defendants, reporters began their own desperate search for witnesses. Narrator:In June of 1955, black Chicago swung to a new kind of music called rock 'n' roll. For three hours that morning we had a big old fire in the yard. My eyes were so full of tears until I couldn't see. Discussion centeres on the Emmett Till case and his interviews with J.W. She was the wife of Roy Bryant, one of the alleged killers. I'm gonna carry you dead or alive. You didn't disagree with 'em on a whole. Nancy Farrell ", Narrator:J.W. You just didn't do that. What happened to Tone Lc? It had sex, it had murder, it had mystery. Milam, left, and Roy Bryant, right, sit with their wives in a courtroom in 1955. He would never again live in Mississippi. I was just willing to bear it all. SOUND RECORDISTS Narrator:Mamie's decision would make her son's death a touchstone for a generation. And I just said, "Hell, I'm fixing to die. We forgot about it. 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. Mamie Till:They said that about one in every five had to be assisted out of the building. The boys wore polyester pants, crepe soled shoes. When Bryant and Milam could not afford a legal defense, five local lawyers stepped up to represent the two suspectspro bono. Mrs. Fannie Ware The three defendants in the case, Roy Bryant, Carolyn Bryant, and J.W. And 100 days after the death of Emmett Till, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat to a white person, and the Montgomery bus boycott began. Roy, Carolyn and J. W. became celebrities. Narrator:At one end of Money was Bryant's grocery, which made a business of selling candy to black kids and provisions to field hands from nearby plantations. Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W Milam were accused of brutally slaying Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy from Chicago. The boy laughed. Too Tight Collins, who worked for J.W. University of South Carolina, ARCHIVAL PHOTOGRAPHS Narrator:After he testified, Wright left his cotton blooming in the field, his old car sitting at the station, and slipped onto the train to Chicago. Meet the boy whose murder ignited a movement. Filmed interview with William Bradford Huie conducted for America, They Loved You Madly, a precursor to Eyes on the Prize. 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. The murder and the trial horrified the nation and the world. Roy Bryant was one of the people indicted for murder in 1955. That was a way of life. Chris Coleman family murders trial, what happened, latest updates. And this said to them clearly, "Hey, it's right here. ), but ain't gonna be no love nest between black and white folk. 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. It was rumored J.W. Narrator:After the trial, sheriff Clarence Strider told reporters, "I hope the Chicago niggers and the NAACP are satisfied.". You ain't goin' to be with the white folks and the white folks ain't goin' to be with you and y'all might be (Unintell. Then he said, "Well, we'll be down there in a little while," and he sent deputies down here to go with me and we took the boat and went up the river. Their trial, where he was cleared, gained international attention and sparked a Civil Rights movement that brought about massive changes. Two rooms about 12 feet square. Milam sold their story to a reporter forLook Magazinefor $4,000. The early 1950s and 1960s is considered the Civil Rights Era. William Winter, former Mississippi Governor:The Till Case held the whole system up for inspection by the rest of the country and by the rest of the world. Narrator:Moses Wright stood and pointed first at Roy Bryant, then at J.W. Reference Center for Marxist Studies, New York City Congressman Diggs said, "What, and miss the verdict?" Jan. 7 2022, Published 2:46 a.m. But tragedy soon followed. My uncle Simmie did wake up, but they told him to go back to sleep. What was the motive for their brutal acts? Under the glare of the spotlight, white Mississippians began to close ranks. Milam and Bryant were acquitted in the murder of Emmett Till. It was from this shack the state alleges Emmett Till was taken by Roy Bryant & J.W. They confessed how they killed the young man. Isn't it true that your son is in Detroit, Michigan with his grandfather right now?". Roy Bryant (January 24 th, 1931 - September 1 st, 1994) was one of the two people (the other being his half-brother J.W. Yet Northern outrage prompted many Southerners to resent outside agitators and rally in support of the suspects. Their court day was in September of 1955. In August 1955, a 14-year-oldBlack boyallegedly flirted with a white woman in a grocery store in Money, Mississippi. Yeah. Narrator:Tallahatchie county sheriff and plantation owner Clarence Strider was responsible for locating witnesses and gathering evidence against Bryant and Milam. Their acquittal created massive outrage and was the spark in the upsurge of activism and resistance that was later referred to as the Civil Rights movement. Lana Turner Clara Davis, Mississippi Resident:You never in any way said anything that they didn't like. William Winter, Governor:It was argued in coffee shops all over the Deep South, that "If we give on this, then we'll, we'll start giving on everything else and the first thing you know, we won't have a segregated society, and black people will be taking over in this part of the country.". . That's the way I said it. Too Tight was out there washing the truck out. Rebekah Suggs. Elaine Owens When Mamie Till asked him to open it up, Rayner refused. White Woman: I'm almost convinced that the very beginning of this was by a communistic front. Willie Reed:Well, when you walked in that courtroom and you know what you -- that you're going testify. Narrator:A juror later revealed that the jury had stalled to "make it look good." Milam and Bryant were acquitted of the murder of Emmett Till. Greg Smith, PRODUCTION ASSISTANTS In his summation, the lead defense attorney warned members of the jury that their ancestors would turn over in their graves if Bryant and Milam were found guilty. Strider greeted them as he passed with a cheery "Hello, niggers.". Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy visiting family in Mississippi from Chicago, was brutally murdered in August 1955. She died on January 6, 2003 at the age of 81. There was an almost irrational fear of black men as if every black man was ready to attack or rape a white woman if you gave him a chance. Some even alluded to Roy Bryant's wife as a crossroads Marilyn Monroe because of her amazing beauty. Donham's husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. 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. And I wondered, was it necessary to shoot him? Till's death was a spark that helped mobilize thecivilrights movement. Television networks chartered a plane to send footage to New York for the nightly news. We were goin' pretty fast and dust is flying behind us. Tuko.co.ke featured an informative article about the Somali Canadian singer that has disappeared from the limelight for quite some time. Gerald Chatham And how do I know I'll ever see you again?" Takagi Stock Footage, Mamie Comments on Trial Verdict:And what I saw was a shame before God and man. Wheeler Parker:The day that we went to the store in Money, we were picking cotton first half of the day, and the second half, because it was so hot -- my uncle drove the car and we took off to Money to get some refreshments, just general things you buy in a store. Narrator:Putting his life at risk, Willie Reed agreed to step forward. He had served in World War II and received combat medals. Milam still alive? But I didn't accept it. Hugh Stephen Whitaker Adam Green Richard Heard, Emmett Till's classmate Ernest Withers, Photographer:The man had laid it out that "We got 22 seats over here for you white boys. And I guess to me it didn't happen. We don't know what happened to them. Because of the wide media coverage, the defendants were popular personalities, and some reporters even talked about their handsome looks. Milam. 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