The Emmett Till case easily evokes emotion because the case provides insight to our current society into the racism found in the South in the 19650's. Emmett Till was only fourteen and died during a family trip in Mississippi. People in the North, especially large cities like Chicago were not aware of the unfortunate situations Blacks faced. Many accounts differ on what Emmett Till did while interacting with the woman in the store. Defenders of Emmett Till say that he did not acknowledge her, while many White people in Mississippi said that he whistled at her, grabbed her, and made lewd remarks. The pathos of the case emerged due to the photographs released from the funeral of Emmett Till in the coffin in his family and also the pictures of his family. During the trial the defense was that Emmett Till was not actually dead depsite that he could only be identified by his ring on his finger. In addition, Carolyn Bryant and J. W. Milam were interviewed and told all the gruesome details of how they killed Emmett Till. William Bradford Huie reported the story and they were able to come clean because they could not be retried. Due to their lack of remorse Bryant and Milam were ostracized by the community. Due to the outrage, Emmett Till became a martyr for the civil rights movement. The most recent time Emmett Till was heavily publicized was due to a song called Karate Chop by Future featuring Lil Wayne. In the song he said, "beat the p***y up like Emmett Till." As a result he was dropped from brands such as Mountain Dew and Pepsi.
-Amber Ebanks
I agree that this case easily evokes emotion. I wish you would have analyzed it more rather than described what happened.
ReplyDeleteInteresting choice of photos. It seems that by putting the picture of Emmitt Till's mangled remains gives the bottom picture a stronger connotation. Seeing them smug and laughing about it makes them seem crueler and is disgusting. Its sad that they really found joy out of the situation and had no remorse, as you pointed out.
ReplyDelete