Midnight Without a Moon

Born in Chicago in 1941, Emmett Till, nicknamed Bobo, was raised by his mother Mamie, who was born in Mississippi. He had a stutter after contracting polio as a child, and he was a lively, social, and jovial boy, known as a comedian and avid protector of his beloved cousins.

In August 1955, Emmett traveled with his best friend and cousin Wheeler Parker to Money, Mississippi, to visit his great-uncle Mose Wright. On August 27, Emmett, Wheeler, and their peers went to the convenience store owned by Roy and Carolyn Bryant. Wheeler recalls seeing Emmett conducting a transition and coming out of the store without incident. The young men were gathered outside when Carolyn Bryant came out and Emmett wolf-whistled at her. Wheeler recalled, “We all could have fainted […] he has no idea where he’s at, no idea what he has done” (Let the World See. Directed by Jeanmarie Condon Fatima Curry, ABC News Studios, 2022). As they were walking home from the store, a car followed them, and they ran into a cotton field to get away.

On the morning of August 28 at approximately 2:30 am, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam entered Mose Wright’s home at gunpoint, demanding to talk to the boys. They roused Emmett, claiming they would bring him back if he “wasn’t the one.” On August 31, Emmett’s body was found in the Tallahatchie River, weighed down by a 70-pound fan from a cotton gin tied around his neck with barbed wire. He had on his father’s ring when he was recovered, but it has since gone missing. Authorities tried to order Emmett’s burial immediately, but Chicago’s Mayor Daley intervened on Mamie’s behalf and halted the internment. His body was returned to Chicago, contingent upon a signed agreement that the casket remain sealed. In Chicago, Mamie immediately ordered the casket opened, and she found her 14-year-old son’s bloated, waterlogged remains in deplorable condition. It was evident that he had been severely beaten, tortured, and finally shot. When asked if she wanted the body retouched by a mortician, Mamie replied to A. A. Rayner, “No, Mr. Rayner, let the people see what I have seen. I want the world to see what is going on in Mississippi in this great old United States of America” (Let the World See). Emmett was photographed, and the images circulated in publications throughout the nation. The casket at his funeral featured a glass top accompanied by photos of Emmett when he was alive so that those who did not know him could understand the degree to which his body had been degraded and desecrated by the hatred that ended his life.

On September 6, a Tallahatchie grand jury indicted Bryant and Milam for Emmett’s murder. On Friday, September 23, 1955, after 68 minutes of deliberation, the all-white male jury acquitted the defendants (“All-White Jury Acquits White Men Who Murdered 14-Year-Old Emmett Till.” Equal Justice Initiative).