JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – In honor of Emmett Till and to commemorate the 70th anniversary of his murder in Mississippi, leaders and family members gathered at the State Capitol to recognize his impact and legacy on the United States.
“It’s 70 years that we stand here today, feeling the same sense of injustice, feeling the same sense of pain, feeling the same sense that his death will not be in vain as his mother wanted and feeling the same sense for the search for truth, justice and accountability,” said Deborah Watts, Till’s cousin and co-founder Emmett Till Legacy Foundation.
There will be several events in Mississippi this weekend to honor Till’s life. There will be a “Till” movie screening at Tougaloo College on August 29, a memorial parade on August 30 and a Worship in White on August 31.
Ahead of the 70th anniversary of his killing, the federal government made public thousands of pages of records on the lynching of Till.
The records in the National Archives, released by the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board, detail how the Justice Department, the FBI, and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights responded to the killing of the 14-year-old Till. The records were released in accordance with the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection Act of 2018.
The Chicago teenager was falsely accused of whistling at a white woman at a grocery store in rural Mississippi. Four days later, Till was abducted from a great-uncle’s home in the predawn hours by Roy Bryant and John William “J. W.” Milam. The white men tortured and killed Till in a barn in a neighboring county, and his body was later found in the Tallahatchie River.
Bryant and Milam were charged with murder in Till’s death but were acquitted by an all-white-male jury. Bryant and Milam later confessed to a reporter that they kidnapped and killed Till.
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FILE – In this May 4, 2005 file photo, Emmett Till’s photo is seen on his grave marker in Alsip, Ill. Legislation that would make lynching a federal hate crime in the U.S. is expected to be signed into law next week by President Joe Biden. The Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act was years in the making. (Robert A. Davis/Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File) -
FILE – Mamie Till-Mobley weeps at her son’s funeral on Sept. 6, 1955, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Chicago Sun-Times, File) -
FILE – In this Sept. 23, 1955, file photo, J.W. Milam, left, his wife, second from left, Roy Bryant, far right, and his wife, Carolyn Bryant, sit together in a courtroom in Sumner, Miss. Bryant and his half-brother Milam were charged with murder but acquitted in the kidnapping and torture slaying of 14-year-old black teen Emmett Till in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant. A team searching the basement of a Mississippi courthouse for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant in June 2022 charging a white woman in his kidnapping in 1955, and relatives of the victim want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later. (AP Photo, File) -
This general view of the courtroom in Sumner, Miss. on Sept. 19, 1955 during the first degree murder trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam shows prospective jurors seated in the jury box at upper left. Circuit Court Judge Curtis Swango Jr., is presiding on the bench. Bryant, elbows on railing, his wife and Milam are in the center. Members of the defense, prosecution and newsmen crowd the area beyond the railing. Spectators are seen in the foreground. (AP Photo) -
FILE – The courtroom, much of which has been restored, where the Emmett Till murder trial was held in the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, is shown on July 24, 2023, in Sumner, Miss. In 2023, President Joe Biden created a national monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi in honor of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File) -
A Mississippi Department of Archives and History historical marker outlines the details of the Emmett Till murder trial at the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, Monday, July 24, 2023, in Sumner, Miss. President Joe Biden is expected to sign a proclamation on Tuesday that establishes a national monument honoring Till, the Black teenager from Chicago whose abduction, torture and killing in Mississippi in 1955 helped propel the civil rights movement. The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, located across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi, will be federally protected places. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) -
All that remains of what was Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Miss., July 14, 2021, are the vine covered brick walls. Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American teen, was beaten and killed in 1955, after he was accused of whistling at a white woman, at the family’s store. For more than a century, one of Mississippi’s largest and most elaborate Confederate monuments has looked out over the lawn at the courthouse in the center of Greenwood. It’s a Black-majority city with a rich civil rights history. Officials voted last year to remove the statue, but little progress has been made to that end. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) -
A “private property” sign is almost completely obscured by the vines and plant life that has overtaken the remains of what was Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Miss., July 14, 2021. Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American teen, was beaten and killed in 1955, after he was accused of whistling at a white woman, at the family’s store. For more than a century, one of Mississippi’s largest and most elaborate Confederate monuments has looked out over the lawn at the courthouse in the center of Greenwood. It’s a Black-majority city with a rich civil rights history. Officials voted last year to remove the statue, but little progress has been made to that end. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) -
A Mississippi Freedom Trail marker sits before the remains of Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Miss., July 14, 2021, where in 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American teen, was accused of whistling at a white woman, at the family’s store. Till was later kidnapped, beaten and killed. For more than a century, one of Mississippi’s largest and most elaborate Confederate monuments has looked out over the lawn at the courthouse in the center of Greenwood. It’s a Black-majority city with a rich civil rights history. Officials voted last year to remove the statue, but little progress has been made to that end. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) -
A memorial sign at Graball Landing, the spot where Emmett Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River just outside of Glendora, Miss., is photographed Monday, July 24, 2023. President Joe Biden is expected to create a national monument honoring Till, the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1955 in Mississippi, and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley. Altogether, the Till national monument will include 5.7 acres of land and two historic buildings. The Mississippi sites are Graball Landing and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, where Emmett’s killers were tried. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) -
Emmett Till’s statue reflects the afternoon sun, during its unveiling, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 in Greenwood, Miss. Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched, Aug. 28, 1955, after being accused of offending a white woman, in her family’s grocery store in Money. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)
His killing galvanized the Civil Rights Movement after Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open casket so that the country could see the brutality. In 2022, President Joe Biden signed a bill named for Till that made lynching a federal hate crime. And in 2023, Biden signed a proclamation establishing a national monument honoring Till and his mother.
Many of the records have never been seen by the public. They include reports, telegrams, case files and correspondences and documents from the NAACP, the White House, and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, among others.
The records can be viewed in the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Collection on the National Archives and Records Administration website.
The Associated Press attributed to this report.