Emmett Till Antilynching Act

Introduction

The issues of respecting civil rights and freedoms have always been essential problems for the United States. They represent an integral part of the policy of such a multinational state. One of the largest population groups in the country is African American citizens, and this group has been discriminated against for centuries until the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. One of the starting points of this movement was criminal cases against African American citizens, one of the most known of which is the murder of Emmett Till.

The Murder of Emmett Till

The story started in August 1955, with an incident including a white woman named Carolyn Bryant and a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago, Emmett Till. In Mississippi, where Emmett went to visit his relatives, he went to a local grocery store. The boy whistled at a white woman at the counter, who happened to be the wife of the shop’s owner, and a few days later, he was kidnapped, tortured, and shot. The murderers from the family of Carolyn Bryant threw the body of Emmett Till in the Tallahatchie River with weight on his neck¹.

When the body of the boy was found, the local sheriff Strider concealed the name of his murderers and tried to convince the people that the body from the Tallahatchie River was not the body of Emmett Till. However, the murderers of Emmett Till, Roy Bryant, and John Williams Milam, finally appeared in court in September 1955, to be soon acquitted by jurors². Their acquittal contributed to the outrage of the U.S. population and revealed the principal flaws in the American legal system, especially in the South of the country. The situation was exacerbated by the understanding of African American people that if white murderers are protected further on, the discrimination in the Southern states will become even worse.

In 2008, Carolyn Bryant finally admitted that she gave a false statement in court, and there was no insult from Emmett Till when he visited her grocery store. In this story, the reason for it was the fear of such a possibility, not the crime itself. The same applies to most jurors in this case, who confessed that they thought the men who murdered Emmett were guilty, but still voted to acquit them³. The very fact of an African American man, who could have possibly insulted a white woman was terrifying enough for them. Thus, the fear of both Carolyn Bryant and jurors in the case of murder was the reason for the acquittal of the murderers.

The reason for the murder lies in the apparent lack of understanding of local customs by a fourteen-year-old boy from Chicago, which resulted in his death. Even though no one in the Mississippi Delta doubted that Roy Bryant and John Williams Milam committed a crime, when it came to the issue of race, justice was on the side of white men⁴. In the Southern States of that time, people considered the doctrine of the superiority of white people to be appropriate, and only the following events in the history of the Civil Rights Movement managed to change their perception of other ethnic groups of the population.

The Importance of the Case for American History

The murder of Emmett Till played a significant role in the development of the Civil Rights Movement all over the country. It was an indication of the need for some changes due to the presence of tension in African American communities, especially among men. They were at risk of being accused of imaginary crimes toward white American women. The courage of Till’s family contributed to the determination of the leaders in the continuous fight for the rights of African American citizens. They used this case to “strike a blow against racial injustice” and inspired the people to claim their rights⁵. Therefore, the murder of Emmett Till became a catalyst for further actions of the leaders of the Civil Rights Movement.

Rosa Parks, the first African American woman who refused to give up her seat on a bus to a white man, was one of the people touched by the story of Emmett Till. She thought of a fourteen-year-old boy who was unjustly killed in the Mississippi Delta in 1955, and it gave her the courage to resist the existing law on bus segregation⁶. Another person was Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., who lamented Emmett Till during his sermon and told about “the lack of moral piety among violent segregationists.⁷” These two leaders of the Civil Rights Movement had a significant influence on its success, and they admitted that the murder of Emmett became a push for the beginning of the fight for their rights.

Support of the Civil Rights Movement from the U.S. Government

The attempts of Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother, to draw attention to the case of murder through public speeches in front of crowds of people and receive help from the U.S. government failed at first. This fact revealed the indifference of the government towards the problems of the African American population. Only spreading the news abroad made the U.S. government respond to their needs for justice and general well being⁸. Therefore, the support for the Civil Rights Movement was gained solely by the increasing unrest of other countries.

The only reason why the U.S. government was finally involved in the Civil Rights Movement lies in the concern of possible threats for the image of American democracy. In the fight with communists during the Cold War, there was a need for some proof that the democratic system is evolving with the times and is therefore superior to the communist one⁹. The fear of destroying the image of democracy was the only circumstance that made the U.S. government support the Civil Rights Movement.

Emmett Till Antilynching Act

There were numerous attempts to pass the Act respecting African American rights and eliminating the disparities that still exist in the United States, but they all failed until recent times. In total, the passage of such an Act failed nearly 200 times throughout its history since 1900. In February 2020, Congress passed the legislation that makes lynching a federal crime. Therefore, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was finally approved, and the Senate is about to render its decision¹⁰.

The newly corrected Emmett Till Antilynching Act considers the deprivation of civil rights of African American citizens as the remaining racism from the times of Reconstruction in the United States. It provides the statistics of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to which over 4000 people, predominantly African Americans, were lynched, and ninety-nine percent of all murderers were acquitted. It also states that 52.2 percent of all the victims were the people who suffered from the “offenders’ anti-Black or anti-African American bias.”

The goal of this Act is to finally “make lynching a federal crime” and “specify criminal penalties for the crime of lynching or any attempt or conspiracy to commit lynching¹¹. Only then the people would be protected not by single measures of the House of Representatives, but a specific Antilynching Act.

The passage of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act was preceded by some other measures taken in 2017. President Trump signed into law Resolution 49, in which Congress condemned the events in Charlottesville, Virginia, considering racist violence. They required the President to speak out against the increasing racist feeling and their consequences for African American people. The Senate also protested against the gatherings of alleged racist groups on the territory of the University of Virginia. According to the new Emmett Till Antilynching Act, the equal punishment of imprisonment not exceeding ten years is also provided for the people conspiring with the main perpetrators¹².

Conclusion

The necessity to provide equal rights for all population groups in the United States stems from historical events. The murder of Emmett Till revealed the presence of racism on their territory. The publicity surrounding this case led to the understanding of the existing lynching predominantly in the South of the country and made the African American citizens fight for their rights. The primary reason leading to committing hate crimes lay in the uncontrollable fear of how the former slaves would use their newfound freedom. With the passage of a new measure, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, there is hope for the African American population of the United States that a specific law will finally observe their rights.

Bibliography

“Emmett Till’s Death Inspired a Movement.” National Museum of African American History and Culture. Web.

Gorn, Elliott J. Let the People See: The Story of Emmett Till. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018.

Miller, Michael Joseph. Murder in the Delta: The Emmett Till Story. New York: PAGE PUBLISHING, INC. 2019.

Montenegro, Elizabeth. “The Impact of Emmett Till.” The American Papers (2017): 33.

Sonmez, Felicia. “House passes historic antilynching bill after Congress’s century of failure.” The Washington Post, 2020. Web.

Tell, Dave. Remembering Emmett Till. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. 2019.

Text – H.r.35 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): Emmett Till Antilynching Act. Bobby L. Web.

Footnotes

1. Elliott J. Gorn. Let the People See: The Story of Emmett Till. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2018), 1.
2. Michael Joseph Miller. Murder in the Delta: The Emmett Till Story. (New York: PAGE PUBLISHING, INC., 2019), 2.
3. Dave Tell. Remembering Emmett Till. (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2019), 3.
4. Gorn. Let the People See, 36.
5. “Emmett Till’s Death Inspired a Movement.” National Museum of African American History and Culture. Web.
6. Montenegro, Elizabeth. “The Impact of Emmett Till.” The American Papers (2017): 33.
7. “Emmett Till’s Death Inspired a Movement.”
8. Montenegro. “The Impact of Emmett Till,” 33.
9. Montenegro. “The Impact of Emmett Till,” 34.
10. Felicia Sonmez. “House passes historic antilynching bill after Congress’s century of failure,” The Washington Post, 2020. Web.
11. “Text – H.r.35 – 116th Congress (2019-2020): Emmett Till Antilynching Act. Bobby, L. Web.
12. See note 11 above.