2004 “60 Minutes” ran a segment on Emmett Till’s 1955 MurderMoney, Mississippi “To many of you, the name Emmett Till may not sound familiar,”Ed Bradley starts. This seems difficult to believe today, in an age when Black Lives Matter. The Till case is rightly regarded as one of the key catalysts of the Civil Rights movement. Roy Bryant, a white man, abducted Till and tortured him to death. Milam for the grievous “crime” of whistling at a white woman — Bryant’s wife, Carolyn. Milam and Bryant were acquitted of the murder by an all-white jury. They were so confident that they wouldn’t have to go up for another trial, they confessed to the crime in an interview with Look magazine in the year following (via PBS).
In the segment, Emmett Till’s still-living relatives –- his cousins Simeon Wright and Wheeler Parker –- are interviewed. The two cousins, Simeon Wright and Wheeler Parker, harrowingly recall the abduction of Till at 14 years old. Graphically, Till’s torture and violence are described. Mamie Till Mobley, Emmett’s mother, is interviewed. She describes her experience with his body, and the horrors that Bryant and Milam caused. It would be an understatement to call it deeply upsetting.