A picture of Emmett Till in his casket after his body was found in the Tallahatchie River.

The grocery store Emmett Till harassed Carolyn Bryant on August 24th, 1955 the day before he was kidnapped. Carolyn Bryant reportedly told

her husband Roy Bryant about this episode.

This was the 70 pound cotton gin fan that was tied to Emmett’s body before he was thrown in

the Tallahatchie River.

This was Moses Wrights home (Emmett’s uncle), it was the last place Emmett Till was seen alive. Moses testified that 2 white men

abducted Emmett from his home around 2:30 AM.

Timeline of known events-May 17, 1954 in Brown vs. Board of Education the United States Supreme Court rules that segregation in public schools in unconstitutional.

-August 17, 1955 Emmett Till and his cousin Wheeler Parker arrives in Mississippi to visit his Uncle Mose Wright.

-Emmett’s mother tells him it is much different in the south and to follow these rules; He must act as if white people were superior to him in the following ways:

Respond to questions with, “Yes Ma’am, Yes Sir”! Never look a white person, especially a woman, in the eye! Never question the word of a white person. If you challenge them or accuse them of

lying, you can get in big trouble! Always get off the sidewalk and onto the street if a white person is coming! Always humble yourself before a white person, even if it means getting on your knees

whether Emmett thought he was wrong or right!

-August 24, 1955 (Wednesday) Emmett Till enters the Bryant Grocery and Meat Market at about 7:30 P.M.. Emmett Till allegedly said something to upset the woman working in the store- Caroyln Bryant.

What Caroyln said happened: Till grabbed her right hand tightly and asked, "How about a date, baby?" When she pulled her hand free and started to walk away, Till grabbed her by the waist near the cash register and told her, "You needn’t be afraid of me, baby I’ve [slept] with white women before.”

-August 26, (Late Evening) Roy Bryant returns home after working at the grocery store and his wife tells him about the event with Emmett Till.

-August 28, (Early Sunday Morning, approximately 2:00 A.M.) Moses Wright claims that Emmett Till is abducted by 2 unknown white men.

-August 28, (Early Sunday Morning, approximately 8:00 A.M.) Moses Wright calls Sheriff George Smith and informs him that Emmett Till has been abducted.

-August 28, (Approximately 9:00 A.M.) a formal investigation into the alleged abduction of Emmett Till begins.

-August 28, (12:00 noon) Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam are arrested and charged with kidnapping Emmett Till. Both men admit to kidnapping Emmett but said they let him go after Carolyn said he was the wrong boy.

-August 31, 1955 (Wednesday) Emmett Till’s body is found by Robert Hodges at the bottom of the Tallahatchie River tied to a large cotton gin fan (approximately 70 pounds).

-September 1, 1955 Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam are charged with the murder of Emmett Till. They are held without bond.

-September 19, 1955 (Monday): Trial begins with jury selection. More than 70 reporters and 30 photographers attend the trial. It is called the most important murder trial of the 1950’s.

*Timeline questions

1. How was the North and South different based on the rules Emmett’s mother told him to follow?

2. Do you believe Carolyn Bryant’s account of what happened in the store? Why/Why not?

3. When was Emmett abducted?

4. Who was initially charged with the murder of Emmett Till?

5. Why do you think this trial gained so much national attention?

Source: http://thechicagoproject.com/v2/till/mocktrial.html

Important People Biography WorksheetPersons Name:

Relationship to the victim:

What is one important fact about this person’s story that other jurors should know?

List any evidence that you found while reading this persons story.

Do you believe this persons story? Why/why not?

Evidence logList any evidence the other jurors in your group found…

List the top 3 pieces of evidence you think would help convict Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam in the murder of Emmett Till.

1.

2.

3.

Please make your recommendation for sentencing, discuss this with your group.

Here are your options…

(A) Not guilty: set them free(B) Guilty of kidnapping: Small jail sentence(C) Guilty of first degree murder: Life sentence(D) Guilty of first degree murder: Sentence to death

Explanation of your verdict (3 to 5 sentences):

Mose Wright (Preacher)

Uncle of Emmett Till

You are the sixty four year old uncle of Emmett Till. You are a share cropper as well as a preacher of a small church in the community. You were visiting relatives in Chicago earlier this summer when you suggested to Emmett’s mother, Mamie, that the young boy return with you to Mississippi to visit his other cousins for a couple of weeks. She agreed and Emmett and his cousin Wheeler Parker rode with you on a train down to Mississippi on August 17.

Late on night on the night of August 28 (near 2:00 A.M.), two men came to your door and nearly banged it down. You said, “Who is it?” The man yelled through the door, “We’re looking for the fat boy from Chicago who did all that dirty talk in Money.” They told you to open up your door and you did.

The first thing you saw was a man standing at the door with a flashlight in one hand and a pistol in the other: he was big and nearly bald. It was dark outside, however, and you did not dare turn on a light. The two men intentionally kept the light from the flashlight away from their faces (so as to keep their identity secret). However, you were sure to try to get a good look regardless and will never forget their faces. You later found out that the one with the flashlight and

pistol was J.W. Milam. The second was Roy Bryant, whom you had seen before because he was the owner of the grocery store in Money, Mississippi.

They told you “the boy from Chicago was at the Bryant’s store earlier that week and had done a lot of vulgar talk to Bryant’s wife.” They said that, “We are going to take that fat boy from Chicago for a ride.”

You told them that if he did something wrong that you would severely scold Emmett. You argued for them to leave the boy and take you instead. You told them that, “this is the only the boy’s second visit to Mississippi. He ain’t got no good sense. He was raised up yonder. He didn’t know what he was doing.” Your wife Elizabeth offered them money for any damages: “Look, we’ll pay you whatever you want to charge,” she pleaded, “we’ll pay you if you just release him.” One of the men replied by telling your wife to, “get back in that bed and I want to hear those springs!” They refused the offer of damages and insisted that they have him (at gunpoint). They replied, “You colored folks just go back to sleep.”

They walked past you and looked into the bedroom where Emmett and his cousin Simeon were sleeping. The two men emerged from the room with Emmett, walked past you and said, “How old are you Wright?” You answered “sixty four.” One of the men told you that, “if you cause any trouble, you’ll never live to see sixty five.” They walked out the door with the boy. You watched from the screened in porch. They took him to the truck (which was parked about fifty feet away with the headlights off) where they asked someone inside, “Is this the boy?” You heard a woman’s voice reply, “Yes.” Emmett was put into the back of their 1955 Chevy pickup truck with a white top and they disappeared into the night toward Money. You never saw him alive again.

Source: http://thechicagoproject.com/v2/till/mocktrial.html

Willie Reed

Neighbor of J.W. Milam

You are an eighteen year old share cropper and frequently pick cotton and other crops for Leslie Milam. You know his brother J.W. Milam, as he comes around quite frequently and works on the plantation as an overseer. You live just down the road from the Sheridan Plantation, the place where you believe Emmett Till was beaten and murdered.

You were home on the morning of Sunday, August 28. You were up early and left your house around six or seven to walk to the store in town to get some food for breakfast. Just after you left your house, a green 1955 Chevy pick up truck with a white top passed by you going in the same direction (toward the Sheridan Plantation). There were four white men in the cab and three colored men in the back. You did not look directly in the cab and did not see any faces, but you are sure there were four white men. Something about the three colored men in the back was just strange. You were within in about fifty feet of the truck, so you were able to get a good look. When you later saw the picture of the boy from Chicago in the paper, you realized that he was the boy sitting on the floor of the truck.

You kept walking up the road toward town. As you got close to the Sheridan Plantation, you saw the truck parked there outside one of the barns. While standing there (kinda behind a tree) you saw J.W. Milam come out of the barn, go over to the well and get a drink of water. He had a pistol on his hip. After he got a drink of water three other white men came out of the barn. They talked for less than a minute and walked back inside the barn. You got a little closer to the barn and heard ,”Licks (the sound of someone getting slapped and punched) and Hollers.” You heard cries, wails and screams coming form the barn. You heard someone cry out, “Mama, Mama, Lord have mercy.” It was horrible scream.

After standing there watching and listening for about fifteen minutes, You ran to the home of Amanda Bradley who lived on the plantation, about two hundred yards from the barn, to tell her what you saw. She said she did not know who was in the barn but she could tell someone was getting quite a beating.

Two black men (probably local share croppers) dragged something out of the barn and threw it in the back of the truck. It was wrapped up in a tarp. You figure it was the boy. It looked long and heavy, like possibly a body. He was slammed down hard on the bed of the truck, but the boy did not cry out. You figured he must have been unconscious, or worse. You saw the four white men get back into the truck and drive off. Before he got into the truck, you noticed that Milam had a gun on his hip. You never heard a gun shot. That is the last you saw of them that morning.

Source: http://thechicagoproject.com/v2/till/mocktrial.html

Deputy Sheriff John Ed Cothran

LeFlore County

You were working Sunday, August 28 around 8:00 A.M. when Mose Wright (He was called “Preacher” by everyone in the community) came to your office and reported that a relative boy of his from Chicago had been taken earlier that night by Roy Bryant, owner of Bryant’s Grocery Store, and another man (later discovered to be his half brother J.W. Milam). He said that the two men came to his house late Saturday night around 2:00 A.M. demanding to have, “The fat boy from Chicago.”

You and Sheriff Smith got into a squad car together to find Bryant and talk to him. At 12:00 P.M. (noon) you found him sleeping in his car behind the store. Sheriff Smith was a good friend of Bryant’s and told you to wait in the car while he woke him up. Smith knocked on the side of the car and you saw Bryant wake up suddenly. They talked for a couple of minutes. Bryant got out of his car and walked back to the squad car with Smith. The Sheriff asked you to get out of the car because he wanted to talk to Bryant “personally” about the missing boy from Chicago. You thought this was strange, but, Bryant was Smith’s friend. Bryant finally got out of the car and Sheriff Smith arrested him for the

kidnapping of Emmett Till. Sheriff Smith later told you that during his conversation, Bryant had confessed that he kidnapped Emmett Till, but denied anything doing with a murder.

After dropping off Bryant at the jail, you drove north to the home of J.W. Milam and talked to him. He also admitted to taking that young black boy for a ride to see if he was the one who did all that vulgar talk at the store in Money. Milam admitted that he and Bryant drove to the Wrights house, went in and took the boy, drove him to the store, where Carolyn Bryant stated that he was not the boy. At that point he told the boy to walk home and that was the last they saw of him. Milam stated that he and Bryant went out and played cards at a friends house the rest of the night. You immediately arrested him on charges of kidnapping (it was about 2:00 P.M. that afternoon).

On Wednesday, August 31, Sheriff Smith informed you that a body had been found in the Tallahatchie River and instructed you to go pick up Mose Wright, bring him to the river in order to identify the body as the Negro boy from Chicago. You Picked up Mose around 11:00 A.M. and drove out to the river.

You went up and inspected the body first. It was completely naked and smelled of decomposing flesh. The body was bloated (from being under water) especially the tongue, which had swelled so much that it was sticking out of the mouth. The face was unrecognizable as the much of the face and head were “caved in”. You noticed a small would about one inch above the right ear that could have come from many things, including a gun shot wound, probably a pistol.

You took a silver ring off the body and took it over to Mose to identify. He said he recognized it as the one Emmett wore. He showed you the initials L.T. which stood for Louis Till, the boys father. You kept the ring for evidence in the trial.

Upon retrieval of the body, the charges were changed from kidnapping to murder for Bryant and Milam.

Source: http://thechicagoproject.com/v2/till/mocktrial.html

Chester Miller

Negro Undertaker from LeFlore County

You are one of the few Negro Undertakers in the area. You work for the Century Burial Association, a black mortuary in Greenwood. You were contacted mid morning on August 31 by a deputy of Sheriff Strider of Tallahatchie County to pick a body of a negro that had been discovered in the Tallahatchie River. (Even after death, blacks and whites were still segregated, including separate undertakers and even separate graveyards). When you arrived two men were pulling the body up on shore.

You were responsible for handling the body, so you were very close to it and performed a good inspection. The stench reminded you of rotting meat, curdled milk, and bile. You looked at the face. It was severely disfigured, and you could see the sure signs of terrible torture. The face was smashed in, one eye was missing and the other was hanging half way down his cheek. The head had a large one inch hole in it behind the right ear. You cannot say what caused the hole or the other wounds, but it certainly could have been a gun shot wound. Although the body floated, it was much heavier than a person normally that size since it was so filled with water. You noticed that the only thing on the body (it was naked) was a silver ring on the right hand. The Sheriff told you to take the ring off the body. You saw the initials “L.T.” inscribed on the ring.

You can report the following observations:

-The face was entirely mangled, possibly a result of a beating. However, it also could have occurred by smashing up against a rock in the water.

-The stench reminded you of rotting meat, curdled milk, and bile.

-Many of his teeth were knocked out.

-One eye was missing and the other was hanging half way down his cheek.

-A large sharp object, probably an axe, had come down across the top of his head, from ear to ear, splitting his face from the back of his head.

-There was a hole in his head, just behind the right ear, probably from being shot.

You took the body back to your morgue and began preparing it for burial. You were instructed by Sheriff Strider to “Get that body into the ground before dark tonight!”

Later that day you went into town to buy a paper because you heard that a picture of the Negro boy from Chicago was on the front page. You bought the paper and went to the side of the building so as no one could see you, for fear that some white man might think you were trying to identify the body. You looked at the front page and examined the face of that young fourteen year old boy. You personally believe that this was the body of Emmett Till. However, the face was so badly beaten that you could not positively identify it as such.

This is not the first murder of a black man you have worked with. You dealt with three other murders this summer. No white man was ever convicted.

Source: http://thechicagoproject.com/v2/till/mocktrial.html