What does the murder of Emmet Till and the subsequent trial of his murderers tell us about American society in the 1950's

Have a little read: ... What does the murder of Emmet Till and the subsequent trial of his murderers tell us about American society in the 1950's The murder of Emmet Till happened on Saturday 27th August 1955. Emmet Till was born in Chicago on July 25th 1941; this means that he was 14 years old. Emmet Till was sent by his mother to visit relatives in Mississippi, in the south of America. At this time there was racial prejudice in the North, but mostly black and white people were treated equally. The South of America was completely different. In the south the "Jim Crow" laws were in place. These laws made it legal for black people to be completely separated from the white people. Black people were not allowed to sit on the same benches, or eat in the same restaurants as white people. As Emmet Till was brought up in the less racist north, he was not accustomed to the separation in the South. He did not answer white shop keepers with the expected "yes sir, no sir" he talked to them as he did when he was at home, not with the respect that was normal in the south. Emmet Till was hanging around with the local black boys and was dared to go into the local convenience store to ask the white girl behind the counter, Carolyn Bryant for a date. When Carolyn Bryant's husband, Roy Bryant heard about the incident he took his brother in law J.W.Milam to Moses Wright's cabin where Emmet Till was staying. Milam used racist language and took Emmet Till in his pick-up truck. When Milam and Bryant sold their story to a newspaper, Milam was reported as saying this to Emmet before killing him " I'm tired of 'em sending your kind down here to stir up trouble, I'm going to make an example of you- just so everybody can know how me and my folks stand." Three days later a decomposed body of a human male was found. The state of the body when found suggested that this man had been tortured so badly that Moses Wright could only identify it as Emmet's by the ring on his finger. At first many white people from Mississippi were appalled at the brutality of the murder. This murder made national news and there were protests held in the north. Many people blamed not just Milam and Bryant but held the whole of