Emmet Till

Essential Question:  What made Emmett Till's murder in 1955 different than previous incidents of violence against African-Americans?  What was the significance then?  What is the significance now?


Warmup:  What can we learn about the murder of Emmett Till from Bob Dylan's protest song Death of Emmett Till?  (Start video 40 seconds in)






To read the lyrics, visit Bobdylan.com

Who was Emmett Till and why was he killed?

Start at 4:40






Images from the case (PBS Eyes on the Prize)

STOP & JOT:  What made Emmett Till's murder in 1955 different than previous incidents of violence against African-Americans?  

The Trial:

Video clip from PBS American Experience:  The Murder of Emmett Till

Primary Source Analysis:

White House Memo filed by E. Frederic Morrow, the first African-American White House staff member

PICK TWO:

• What do you read that you didn’t expect?
• What powerful words and ideas are expressed?
• What feelings and thoughts does the primary source trigger in you?
• What questions does it raise?
• What can you learn from analyzing this?
• If someone created this, what would be different?

How did this incident shape young African-Americans?

• "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
• "My memories are exact -- and parallel those of many others my age -- I felt vulnerable for the first time in my life -- Till was a year younger -- and recall believing that this could easily happen to me -- for no reason at all. I lived in Pennsylvania at the time."       ~ Julian Bond, civil rights leader and chairman, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, and George School alum

STOP & JOT:  What was the significance then?  What is the significance now?

Additional resources:

PBS Timeline of Emmett Till case