The 1950s was a turbulent time, containing many incidents
that led to the reform and protests of the 1960’s. Racism was at a peak with
its conflict with equal rights as African-Americans were becoming fuller
members of society, and the flaws of the Jim Crow error were beginning to be
more widely recognized. The murder of Emmett Till was one of the few incidents
of the 50’s that brought the issues of racism to the forefront of the American conscience.
His murder highlighted the lack of progressive change in the south in the years
since the civil war with little change in the unofficial, but ever present
racial caste system. Change of any kind in the south was slowed or prevented by
white supremacy groups like the White Citizen’s Council and the Ku Klux Klan
(of which his murders were members of). Even with much of the south stuck in
the past the majority wanted to look forward at the time the murder occurred.
I enjoyed reading this post, especially the part about the murder of Emmett Till because it describes the importance of the incident in bringing about change. Why do you think racial relations in the south were still so poor, almost a 100 years after the end of slavery?
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