The Murder of Emmett Till

This helped me understand that most people couldn't see past the color of someone's skin. Just because of the color of their skin they were treated differently. 

“A woman inside the truck confirmed he was the boy they were looking for” (McBirney). “Emmett Till was brutally murdered because of racial hatred” (McBirney). In To Kill A Mockingbird, “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee 276). Tom Robinson was accused of attempted rape and Emmett Till was said to have been trying to get the attention of a married woman. Till was just a 14 year old boy who was visiting family. Robinson had a family at home. Yet both of them was never able to see them again. 

They were both treated horribly and didn't get to say their side because of the color of their skin. If it were a white person they would have been treated differently. Which is very obvious racism, as well as abuse. Till was beaten to death and Robinson was verbally harassed and eventually killed in an excessive way.

Emmett till was a black 14 year old boy from Chicago who went to Mississippi to visit family when he was taken from his house, brutally beat, murdered, and then dumped in a river by two white men over something Emmet had said to one of their wives which ended up actually being a lie the women told.After the men had no sympathy and admitted to it as well as the women but did not serve a day in jail. ”The jury was made up of entirely white men because Black people and white women were banned from serving. After listening to the facts of the case for five days, they deliberated 7 for just 67 minutes before concluding that Bryant and Milam were not guilty.” pg3 This helps me better understand the situation the black man Atticus is defending. An example of this is when Cecil Jacobs was making fun of Scout for who her dad was defending. “My folks said your daddy was disgrace and that nword oughta hang from the water tank.” pg 87 These are both examples of racism.

helps me understand on how just because of the color of your skin justifies on how you are treated. 

“‘Chicago boy,’ I said, ‘I’m tired of ‘em sending your kind down here to stir up trouble. I’m going to make an example of you – just so everybody can know how me and my folks stand’” (mcbirney). he's trying to prove a point on how much he dislikes black Chicago people. this connects to when the book said "yeah, but Atticus aims to defend him. that's what I don't like about it" (Lee 186). this connects on how they aren't liking Atticus because of something he does and the person he's defending. this is racism because of how he doesn't like Emmett because of where he's from and because he's black, and they don't like Atticus because of him defending a black man. 

The article helped me understand how badly people of color were treated back then just over the color of their skin. For example in the article it says how the men who murdered Emmett felt like heroes,"Throughout the interview, the two men never showed any sign of guilt or wrongdoing; in their minds they had done what was right to
protect their families and their country; they were heroes."(McBirney). this relates to the book when the men were trying to kill Tom Robinson in the middle of the night. even though some of the men were good people the feeling of racism drove them to do something bad,“A mob's always made up of people, no matter what. Mr. Cunningham was part of a mob last night, but he was still a man."(Lee) the quote shows how that everyone is human at the end of the day and how racism is dumb because everyone is human.

This article helps me understand the book better because it is an excellent example of the brutality black people faced during this time and it also shows how nobody felt sorry for the wrongdoings they did. They had no sympathy for the family and the kid that they brutally murdered even though he didn't do anything. The people that did this to him claimed : “‘Chicago boy,’ I said, ‘I’m tired of ‘em sending your kind down here to stir up trouble. I’m going to make an example of you – just so everybody can know how me and my folks stand.’” (McBirney pg 3). This was their whole reason for killing an innocent person. I feel this connects to the part where Tom Robinson was in the jail and all those men were going to kill him.¨ ¨He in there, Mr. Finch?¨a man said. ¨He is,¨ we heard Atticus answer, ¨and he's asleep. Don´t wake him up.¨¨ (Pg 171). This relates to both racism and abuse because in both situations, the perpetrators who committed these crimes were doing it for no reason other than they didn't like the color of the innocents skin. And in these hateful acts they are killing (or trying to kill) these innocent people.

this article helps me better understand how openly racist everybody was back then. which is a no brainier but I mean just how blatant it was and how people didn't care about hiding it. even after what these racist people did, they didn't worry about the fact that they had killed a boy because they had killed a black boy, "Throughout the interview, the two men never showed any sign of guilt or wrongdoing; in their minds they had done what was right to protect their families and their country; they were heroes."(McBirney) this reminds me of when Atticus had said this in court, "She was white, and she tempted a Negro. She did something that in our society is unspeakable: she kissed a black man." (Lee 231) this just goes to show the world they live in as atticus makes it clear that it's frowned apon, so much so that he uses the word "unspeakable" just to describe somebody kissing a black person. everybody was so openly discriminative and it makes you think about what other untold stories there are from people of color in this time period.

This article help me understand the how the color of your skin justifies how you are treated. And it helped me understand the book better because this article really highlighted racism and how how Emmett Till was treated just because of his skin color. They killed an innocent kid because he was black. In the article it tells us how the men who kill Emmett felt good about it and they felt like heroes about it, “Throughtout the interveiw, the two men never showed any sign of guilt or wrongdoing; in their minds they had done what was right to protect their families and their country; they were heroes.”( McBirney). This relates to the book because they were trying to kill Tom when he was in jail, in the middle of the night. Even though the men were good people they felt it was necessary to do this to “protect their families” just like how the two men killed Emmett felt. And the men that come up to the jail to kill Tom Robinson are good people but the racism drove them to make this desicion to make them want to kill Tom. And Walter Cunningham was one of the men that went to the jail to try and kill Tom, even though he’s a good man he felt the need to try and kill him, “ You know what we want,’ another man said. ‘Get aside from the door, Mr. Finch.’ ‘You can turn around and go home again, Walter,’ Atticus said pleasantly.” ( Lee 172)  This shows how racism can change good people and drive them to do harmful things. And how Tom always has to be careful about anything he does. Emmetts story goes to show how dangerous people can be and how they can take something that is unharmful and turn it around. Emmetts story shows the reality of racism and what black people go through.

Emmett was a 14 year old black boy. He lived with his mom and his uncle came up to visit, his uncle was traveling to visit all of the family. Emmett begged to tag along and one time he and his cousins went into a convenience store and I guess he was by himself and he was accused of being sexual with the white girl owner. He was then killed with no explanation for anyone.

”Ultimately, the fact remains that the young boy was kidnapped, tortured and murdered for no other reason than the color of his skin.”(McBirney) This helps me understand the situations in TKM because there was and still is racism all around. In TKM the main idea or adversity is racism, because of Atticus defending a black man. There was Racism all throughout the book, especially when they were in trial. “Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed” (Lee 276) This is related to abuse and racism. 

this article about Emmett Till helps me understand how big of a problem that racism causes and the effect it has on people especially in that time period. Emmett Till, was a 14 year old African American boy who lived with his mom, he was accused of being sexual with a white woman and 2 men took it upon themselves to kill Emmett with no evidence or explanation of any wrongdoing, "the two men never showed any sign of guilt or wrongdoing;in their minds they had done what was right to protect their families and their country;they were heroes" (McBirney) I can connect this to "To Kill a Mockingbird" because almost the same thing happened to Tom in the book he was unfairly accused, and sent to trial "Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed"(Lee 276) showing us that racism is all around them and these are all signs and evidence of racism and abuse being very prominent in the book. 

This article about Emmett Till, helped me understand the predijust and ridiculous way of thinking people in the past had. The sheer unfairness and Baised they had back then, helped me understand how the court could be so openly Baised in To Kill A Mocking Bird. Such as when they said this " After listening to the facts of the case for five days, they deliberated 7
for just 67 minutes before concluding that Bryant and Milam were not guilty. One juror said in an
interview, “If we hadn’t stopped to drink pop, it wouldn’t have taken that long.” (McBirney). This connects back to the book because it shows how unfair the justice system was to black people back then. How the jury just didn't seem to care or even give him a chance. “The one place where a man ought to get a square deal is in a courtroom, be he any color of the rainbow, but people have a way of carrying their resentments right into a jury box.” (Lee 224). This clearly relates back to racism.

The Article helped me understand how it was a common site to see a black man racially profiled like that and how Harper Lee saw the same thing in the case of Tom Robinson, "Emmett Till was brutally murdered because of racial hatred." (McBirney) Emmett Till was murdered for something he didn't do at all and relating back to the book, "A jury never looks at a defendant it has convicted, and when this jury came in, not one of them looked at Tom Robinson." (Lee 240) Tom Robinson was murdered too and just because of the color of his skin. This most definitely goes with Racism and I don't think I have to explain why but, both men were persecuted against simply for the color of their skin and it would happen again and again and still happens to this day albeit with less of a degree.  

The article makes me understand the social prejudice and racism on the outlooks of the black communities in the towns especially in the early 1900s. This article shows more of the problems going on in the real world. the murder of Emmitt Till was significant because there was no justice for the murder of this 14-year-old kid because of his race. this helps me better understand how Harper Lee grew up because she was exposed to all this racism and hatred in her community and the overall world the prejudice towards African American people all because of the color of their skin. A quote that stands out to me is," She also insisted they hold an open-casket funeral so that everyone could see the worst effects of racism in the United States"(McBirney). This brings a moment in the book when a mob shows up to try killing Tom at the jailhouse but Atticus protects him and doesn't allow them to get to him. Tom is an african american man and is being accused of rape. a quote from this moment is, "'You know what we want,' another man said. 'Get aside the door Mr. Finch.'"(Lee 172). These men are at the jailhouse trying to get Atticus to kill Tom. this relates to racism because they are trying to use their white supremacies to kill a man but think it's okay and they are doing good for it. 

This article helps me understand the severity of how badly black people were treated back then a quote that shows this is “They threatened to shoot Emmett, told him to get dressed, and led him outside to their pickup truck. A woman inside the truck confirmed that he was the boy they were looking for.” (McBirney) white men broke into his house, threatened and killed him for something that wasn’t really a big deal. A part from the book that relates to this is “Whenever a white man does that to a black man, no matter who he is, how rich he is, or how fine a family he comes from, that white man is trash,” (Lee 252). That quote relates to the Emmett Till article because back then a white man would just treat black people like trash because they were black, but that just makes the white people trash. This is a form of racism because of how the whites treat blacks.

This article helped me understand the book better because it really shows how racism a quote to support this is “There have been varied accounts of what provoked his killers to act but, ultimately, the fact remains that the young boy was kidnapped, tortured and murdered for no other reason than the color of his skin.” (page 1) this quote shows racism because of the terrible things that happened to him just because he is black.  A quote from the book that shows racism is “she did something that in our society is unspeakable she kissed a black man”(Lee 231) this shows racism because it was considered bad to have relations with the other race.  

This article helps me understand the racism in the south eighty years ago. This article connects to the book at the court case, as a black man is falsely accused in the book but in the article the boy is falsely accused of doing something and is murdered because of it. In the article, one of the writers defended the brothers saying, "Another writer defended Bryant and Milam, saying, “[They] did what had to be done, and their courage… is to be commended"(McBirney).  I feel like this connects to the part of the book when Reverend Sykes and Jem are discussing if Tom Robinson will be innocent or not, and Reverend Sykes tells Jem, “I aint ever seen any jury decide in favor of a colored man over a white man…”(Lee 238). This relates to racism because it is about white courts favoring a white man in the court against an innocent black person.this also relates to abuse as Tom Robinson is accused of rape and Emett Till murder.

This artical helps me understand the book better because it really highlighted the harsh realities that people of color went through.Harper Lee’s experiences growing up in the South really  influenced how she portrayed the injustice in her novel. One quote that stands out to me is Simeon Wright’s description of Emmett Till as someone who "really had no sense of danger" (McBirney), emphasizing Emmett’s tragic innocence and his unawareness of the dangers he faced in the South. Like To Kill a Mockingbird, Scout and Jem often face racism without fully understanding its meaning. For example, their innocence connects to Emmett’s when they fail to get a good understanding about the  prejudice surrounding them. This is shown when Atticus tells his kids “But there is one way in this country in which all men are created equal” (Lee 233), this quote highlights the disconnect between the idea of equality and the reality of racial injustice. Both Emmett Till’s murder and Tom Robinson’s trial expose how racism leads to unfair treatment, showing the devastating impact of prejudice.

this article helps me understand how colored people were treated in the south, Emmett Hill was a 14 year old boy who lived with his mom and got accused of doing sexual stuff with a white woman and two white men that knew that girl beat and killed Emmett with no proof that he did it. I connect this to How To Kill A Mocking Bird because the just about the same thing happen to Tom Robinson he got accused of rape and white men were trying to kill him. "Tom was a dead man the minute Mayella Ewell opened her mouth and screamed"(Lee 276) this tells me that racism was all around these innocent people.

This helped me understand that people didn’t care about barely anything else then the color of the person. When Milam said, “‘Chicago boy,’ I said, ‘I’m tired of ‘em sending your kind down here to stir up trouble.” (McBirney). It tells me that she just assumes that the humans from Chicago are all bad people. Both the book and the article shows how racism was during the mid-1900 to early 2000.