Who Is Emmett Till's Contribution To The Civil Rights Movement?

While it may seem unimaginable now, in recent American history there has been proof of racial intolerance resulting in gruesome death towards African Americans. In Harper Lee’s novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Robinson, an African American man living in Alabama, is falsely accused of raping a caucasian woman. He is pronounced innocent because of Atticus Finch’s work, but he is still lynched by a mob. In the real world there are no Atticus Finchs, so Emmett Till was unsuccessful in his case and still murdered. Emmett was a teenager when he was accused of whistling at a white women and suffered his dire fate (Kauffman). After killing Till, his murderers were swiftly acquitted by the jury, and this gave the country a rude awakening (Nilsen). These actions were not well received by the world. The lynching of Emmett Till contributed to the beginnings of the Civil Rights Movement in America by showing the entire country the horrors that were occurring in the South and uniting a people around a common cause.
In the early 1900s racial tensions in the southern parts of the United States were at a boiling point, and Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, was not aware of the societal differences in the North and South (Whitfield). In the summer of
Immediately after the verdict was reached, both predominantly black and white newspapers, specifically in the North, and foreign press, condemned the decision (Whitfield). Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till, ensured that images of her son’s mangled body would be published. These became a huge motivation in the Civil Rights movement (Nilsen). A public viewing was set up for Emmett, and “so many people came to pay their respects, that the funeral had to be postponed for two days,” (Nilsen). As shown, the terrible crime began to add fuel to the fire of social justice and showed the world what was truly