Family members and eyewitnesses traveled from Chicago's Union Station to Greenwood, Mississippi on the anniversary of Emmett Till's 1955 murder. The Emmett Till Interpretive Center and the National Parks Conservation Association organized the ride. Passengers included Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Till's cousin and the last living eyewitness to his kidnapping, Parker's wife Dr. Marvel Parker, and Juliet Louis, widow of sharecropper Willie Reed, who reported Till's death and testified at the trial. In 1955 Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam abducted, brutally mutilated, and lynched Till after Carolyn Bryant Donham accused him of propositioning her. An all-white jury acquitted the men despite later admissions. Donham reportedly recanted in 2008 but later denied the recantation, and the Department of Justice closed a second investigation in 2021.
Driving the news: The family left Wednesday night fromChicago's Union Station and arrived in Greenwood, Miss., on Thursday morning, on the anniversary of his murder. It was a similar ride that Till, a 14-year-old Black boy, took seven decades ago to visit family in Mississippi before he was killed. The Emmett Till Interpretive Center and the National Parks Conservation Association organized the ride.
In 1955, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam lynched Till after Bryant's wife, Carolyn Bryant Donham, accused Till of propositioning her despite witness accounts saying he whistled at her. Till crossed paths with Donham, who was then 20, at the grocery store she ran with her husband in Mississippi. Within days, Donham's husband and brother-in-law abducted and lynched Till after brutally mutilating his body. An all-white jury cleared the two white men in 1955, though they admitted to killing Till in an interview a year later.
What they're saying: "We're not here to stir up animosity or hate, but to remind people of how far we've come and how much progress we've made," Rev. Parker told WBBM-TV. "I'm always reminded of the suffering and price that he paid, but we've come a long way." Context: In 1955, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam lynched Till after Bryant's wife, Carolyn Bryant Donham, accused Till of propositioning her despite witness accounts saying he whistled at her.
Collection
[
|
...
]