On August 28, 1955, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till, visiting Mississippi from Chicago, was abducted and murdered after an accusation that he had offended a white woman. His mutilated body was later recovered from a river. Till’s mother insisted on an open-casket funeral so the public could see the brutality of the killing. Photographs published in Black newspapers and magazines shocked many Americans. An all-white jury acquitted the defendants, who later admitted involvement in a paid magazine interview. The case became a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement.
