1. Think/Pair/Share
What reactions did you think Southerners would have had to Brown v. Board?

2. Emmett Till

3. Today’s Goals We will understand: The case of Emmett Till
Why he is so significant

4. “Through the Wire” by Kanye West …I drink a boost for breakfast, and ensure for dessert Somebody ordered pancakes I just sip the sizzurp That right there could drive a sane man bizzerk Not to worry y'll Mr. H 2 the Izzo's back to wizzerk How do you console my mom or give her light support When you telling her your sons' on life support And just imagine how my girl feel On the plane scared as hell that her guy look like Emmett Till She was with me before the deal she been trying to be mine She a delta so she been throwing them Dynasty signs

5. What is the significance of Emmett Till?

6. Emmett Till was born in Chicago in 1941.
In 1955, Emmett (aged 14) went to spend the summer with family in Money, Mississippi

7. Emmett Till Flirted with a white woman at a grocery store
Some said he whistled at her
Others said he tried to talk to her
Four days later, the woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother J. W. Milam kidnapped Emmett

8. Emmett Till They brutally beat him
Took him to the edge of the Tallahatchie River, shot him in the head
Fastened a large metal fan used for ginning cotton to his neck with barbed wire
Drowned his body in the river.

9. Mamie Till
Funeral decision
Significance

10. Till’s Funeral

11. Emmett Till’s Funeral Photo

12. The Nation’s Response

13. Responses Across the Country

14. What is the significance of the Emmett Till case, according to each of these writers?

15. Directions Perform a close reading of Docs A-C
Take notes, annotate and draw conclusions about each author’s perspective
Then answer questions 1-3 on the back

16. Document A Western Union Telegram September 6, 1955 To: J
Document A Western Union Telegram September 6, 1955 To: J. Edgar Hoover, Director, FBI From: Lester Banks, Los Angeles, California The world will regard America's sense of justice as a hollow mockery if the white men who brutally lynched young Emmett Till in Mississippi are not punished. I do not mean Mississippi justice. There is as much justice in Mississippi as in Communist Russia. This case legally falls under your jurisdiction and should be prosecuted in a federal court as Emmett Till's civil rights were violated.

17. Document B September 11, 1955 To: Mr. Gerald Chatham, Hernando, Miss.
From: J. S. Connelly, Morehouse Gin Company, Morehouse, Missouri
Dear Mr. Chatham:
We have a case that needs careful handling. Certain features, sticking out like
a sore thumb, demand consideration if justice is to be done.
(a) The little nigger asked for it and got precisely what was coming to him….
(c) Mrs. Bryant's husband and his kinsmen are her natural protectors from insult and injury. Those men deserve honor, not blame, for doing their duty. Even if they actually killed the little darkey, which has not yet been shown, a verdict of Justifiable Homicide would be in order.

18. Document C
Document C Postcard Postmarked September 8, 1955, Chicago, Illinois To: Dist. Attorney Gerald Chatham, Hernando, Mississippi, Prosecutor From: Anonymous That nigger…was trying to show the Southerners how "tough" their kind from Chicago could be and got just what he deserved…It's good to know that the Southerners still try to protect their women. The niggers up here have nothing else but rape and crime in their minds.

19. The Trial
The men were arrested and tried in a segregated courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi
The men were acquitted after the all-white jury deliberated for 67 minutes
Roy Bryant, J.W. Milam

20. The Confession
We took him and we was just gonna whip him, scare some sense into him. Back of the house is a tool shed. Two rooms about 12 feet square. We walked him in there and took turns smashing him across the head with the 45. First my brother, then me, then him, then me. We put him back in the truck. We knew what we was going to do. There's a spot about a mile and a half from the bridge where the banks are steep. It was just the spot.
I held up the gun. I fired and the Chicago boy twisted around and caught it right in his ear. We tied the gin fan to his neck with barbed wire and rolled his body into 20 feet of muddy water.
For three hours that morning we had a big old fire in the yard. Damn if that nigger didn't have crepe sole shoes. You know how hard they are to burn?

21. Bob Dylan Wrote a song called “The Death of Emmett Till” Question:
According to Dylan, what is the significance of Emmett Till?
Use a quote from the song to support your answer.

22. Summary Question
What is the significance of the Emmett Till case to the Civil Rights Movement?

23. Think/Pair/Share What progress has been made since Till’s death?
Is there still this type of racism in America today?
Either in terms of people being targeted for violence
Or in the court system?