Emmett Till
Emmett Till was an African American boy who was born in 1941 in Chicago and grew up in a middle-class black neighborhood. Unfortunately, he had to suffer lynching at the age of 14 due to a hate crime.
According to his biography, Emmett was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, in 1955 when the 14-year-old was accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman who was a cashier at a grocery store.
His mother decided to have an open-casket funeral with Till’s body on display for five days. His death caught national attention due to the dreadful extremity of the crime. His death brought to bare the cruelty of racism, and helped spark civil rights movements.
Till became a martyr for racial discrimination and his casket is now on display at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
