Selected Quotations: The Impact of the
Lynching of Emmett Till
When people saw what had happened to my son, men stood up who had never
stood up before.
—Mamie Till-Mobley
I remember not being able to sleep when I saw [the photos]. Can you
imagine being 11 years old and seeing something like that for the first time in
your life and it being close to home? The death of Emmett Till touched us, it
touched everybody. And we always said if we ever got a chance to do something,
we were going to change things around here.
—Margaret Block, a long-time activist in
Cleveland, Mississippi
And the fact that Emmett Till, a young black man, could be found
floating down the river in Mississippi, as, indeed, many had been done over the
years, this set in concrete the determination of people to move forward.
—Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth, civil rights
leader
I thought about Emmett Till, and I could not go back. My legs and feet
were not hurting, that is a stereotype. I paid the same fare as others, and I
felt violated. I was not going back.
—Rosa Parks, civil rights activist
Emmett Till and I were about the same age. A week after he was murdered
. . . I stood on the corner with a gang of boys, looking at pictures of him in
the black newspapers and magazines. In one, he was laughing and happy. In the
other, his head was swollen and bashed in, his eyes bulging out of their
sockets and his mouth twisted and broken. His mother had done a bold thing. She
refused to let him be buried until hundreds of thousands marched past his open
casket in Chicago and looked down at his mutilated body. [I] felt a deep
kinship to him when I learned he was born the same year and day I was. My
father talked about it at night and dramatized the crime. I couldn’t get Emmett
out of my mind.
—Muhammed Ali, boxer
I think the picture in Jet magazine
showing Emmett Till’s mutilation was probably the greatest media product in the
last forty or fifty years because that picture stimulated a lot of interest and
anger on the part of blacks all over the country.
—Congressman Charles Diggs
Executive Order 9981: Harry S. Truman
The White House, July 26, 1948
Establishing the President’s
Committee on Equality of Treatment and Opportunity In the Armed Forces.
WHEREAS it is essential that
there be maintained in the armed services of the United States the highest
standards of democracy, with equality of treatment and opportunity for all those
who serve in our country’s defense:
NOW THEREFORE, by virtue of
the authority vested in me as President of the United States, by the
Constitution and the statutes of the United States, and as Commander in Chief
of the armed services, it is hereby ordered as follows:
It is hereby declared to be
the policy of the President that there shall be equality of treatment and
opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race,
color, religion or national origin. This policy shall be put into effect as
rapidly as possible, having due regard to the time required to effectuate any
necessary changes without impairing efficiency or morale.
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Source: President Truman’s Executive Order 9981
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African Americans in World War II
African
Americans served bravely and with distinction in every theater of World War
II…In 1941, fewer than 4,000 African Americans were serving in the military and
only twelve African Americans had become officers. By 1945, more than 1.2
million African Americans served in uniform on the Home Front, in Europe, and
the Pacific…
During
the war years, the segregation practices of civilian life spilled over into the
military. The draft was segregated and more often than not African Americans
were passed over by the all-white draft boards. Pressure from the NAACP led
President Roosevelt to pledge that African Americans would be enlisted
according to their percentage in the population….
Most
African Americans serving at the beginning of WWII were assigned to non-combat
units and relegated to service duties…By 1945, however, troop losses virtually
forced the military to begin placing more African American troops into
positions as infantrymen, pilots, tankers, medics, and officers in increasing
numbers. In all positions and ranks, they served with as much honor,
distinction, and courage as any Caucasian soldier did. Still, African American
MPs stationed in the South often could not even enter restaurants where their
German prisoners were being served a meal.
On
D-Day, the First Army…including about 1,700 African American troops… spent 183
days in combat and were credited with capturing 30 major towns in France,
Belgium, and Germany.
Stephen
Ambrose identified…American irony of WWII, writing, “The world’s greatest
democracy fought the world’s greatest racist with a segregated army” (Ambrose,
Citizen Soldier).
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Source: National WWII Museum
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THE POWER OF A PHOTOGRAPH:
THE LYNCHING OF EMMETT TILL
I
couldn’t bear the thought of people being horrified by the sight of my son. But
on the other hand, I felt the alternative was even worse. After all, we had
averted our eyes for far too long, turning away from the ugly reality facing us
as a nation. Let the world see what I’ve seen.
Mamie Till Mobley
In September 1955, shortly after fourteen-year-old
Emmett Till, who was visiting family on summer break, was murdered by white
supremacists in Money, Mississippi, his grieving mother, Mamie Till Mobley,
distributed to newspapers and magazines a gruesome black-and-white photograph
of his mutilated corpse. Although the mainstream media rejected the photograph
as inappropriate for publication, Mobley was able to turn to African American
periodicals for assistance.
Asked why she would do this, Mobley explained that by
seeing, with their own eyes, the brutality of segregation, Americans would be
more likely to support the cause of civil rights. “The whole nation had to bear
witness to this,” she insisted.
Mobley’s brave gesture represents
one of the most decisive moments in the civil rights movement. The publication
of the photograph in Jet and
other black periodicals helped transform the modern movement, inspiring a new
generation of African American activists to join the cause. It also affirmed [strengthened]
the capacity [power] of visual images to jolt Americans, black and white, out
of their state of denial or complacency [acceptance of the sitation].
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For All the World to See:
Visual Culture and the Struggle for Civil Rights
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People & Events:
Mamie Till Mobley (1921-2003)
A Terrible Burden
"When I began to make the announcement that Emmett had been
found and how he was found, the whole house began to scream and to cry. And
that's when I realized that this was a load that I was going to have to carry.
I wouldn't get any help carrying this load."
Horrified by the mutilation of her son's body yet determined
that it would not happen again, Mamie made a stunning decision -- Emmett would
have an open casket funeral. "I think everybody needed to know what had
happened to Emmett Till," she said. Some 50,000 people streamed in to view
Emmett's corpse in Chicago, with many people leaving in tears or fainting at
the sight and smell of the body.
Taking the Fight to the People
Mamie took her fight to the people and gave speeches to
overflowing crowds across the country. Blacks were galvanized. Membership in the NAACP soared. African Americans were
angered by Emmett's killing and the injustice, and moved by the loss of an only
child to a young mother.
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PBS: American Experience
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