60 Minutes segment
UPI International
Urban League: criticism of
on Till slaying
vandalism
Venson, Ethyl
Venson, Ransom “R. Q.”
Voting Rights Act of 1965
Wade, Luther
Wade v. State (1939)
Wakefield, Dan: excursion with police
interviews of locals
on Mose Wright testimony
at murder trial
Walker, B. C.
Walker, H. S. J.
Walker, Robert
Walters, Basil L. “Stuffy”
Ward, Luke
Ward, Sally
Washington, DC
Washington, Johnny B.
Washington, Val
Washington Afro-American
Washington Post
Waters, Enoch
Watkins, Greg
Watts, Deborah
Webb, Mississippi
Weber, Ed
Wells, Ida B.
Wesley, John Milton
West Point Daily Times Leader
Westbrook, P. M.
Western Union
Westmoreland, Lynn
Wharton School
Whitaker, Hugh Stephen
and trial participants
trial transcript
White, Hugh
criticism of Willie Reed’s mother
on outsiders’ meddling
and Till case
on Till murder
Whitfield, Stephen
Whitt, Malcolm
Whitt, Wendol
Whitten, Jamie
and attorneys
on jury trial amendment
Whitten, John
background
closing arguments
death
ethical issues
H. C. Strider examination
and Huie
later encounter with Bryant
later life
legal argument
praise for colleague
on “Shocking Story”
on Till trial
Whitten, John, III
Wier, Dana
Wiggins, Tommy
Wignor, Doug
Wilkie, Shorty
Wilkins, Roy
on accusations
conversation with Anna Crockett
criticism of
on grand jury decision
and Mamie Bradley
phone call with Joseph Tobias
at rally
on “Shocking Story”
on Till murder
Williams, E. W.
Williams, Franklin
conversation with Anna Crockett
conversation with Mamie Bradley
and Mose Wright on tour
Williams, John Bell
on “Shocking Story”
Williams, Juan
on grand jury decision
Williams, Ollie
Williams, Smallwood
Wilson, Alex
and Collins
in Mound Bayou
at murder trial
and rumors
Wilson, Betty Dewberry
and rumors
Wilson, Billy
Wilson, John Henry
Wilson, W. P.
Winona, Mississippi
Winter, William
Withers, Ernest
and iconic photo
at murder trial
Wolf, Edward
wolf whistle
Carolyn Bryant’s description of
Cothran’s description of
defense’s use of
family description of
press reports of
revisionist accounts of
trial description of
Wolf Whistle and Other Stories
Wood, Shelton
Wood, Thelma
Woods, B. A.
Woodward, Tommy
Woody, Gary
Worthington, Ed
Wright, Annie Cole
Wright, Elizabeth Smith
accompanies body
attempted warning to Till
on Bryant store incident
flees to Sumner
gives birth
meeting with Huie
other store incident
and payment to kidnappers
on Spell story
on Till
warning to sons
in Washington, DC
Wright, Fielding
Wright, Lucinda Larry
Wright, Maurice
accused of collusion with Bryant
at Bryant store
death
flees from store
life after trial
revisionist account of wolf whistle
warning to Till about behavior
Wright, Mose
background
on body at river
on Bryant store incident
cemetery incident
comforted by neighbors
as conscientious objector
criticism of
death
defense theory regarding
flees to Sumner
flies to Seattle
hears voice identify Till
house description
identifies body
invites boys to Mississippi
job offer
on kidnappers
on Leflore County grand jury
life after Till trial
meeting with Huie
move to Chicago
political views of
questions about birthdate
at rallies
relationships with white people
reports abduction
rumors regarding
on search for Till
statement to defense attorneys
threats against
on Till
travels with boys to Mississippi
trial testimony
visit to Chicago
visited by reporters
and West Coast tour
witness to kidnapping
Wright, Robert
Wright, Simeon
on autopsy issues
and Bryant store
at ceremony
defense of brother
description of father
DNA test
at exhumation
on grand jury decision
identifies ring
life after Till murder
on kidnapping
on Mamie Bradley marriage to Mallory
on new investigation
Oxford meeting
60 Minutes segment
on Till
Wright, Will
Yazoo City Herald
Yorty, Sam
Young, Frank
failure to testify
meeting with investigators
reports story of accomplices
Zama, Ella: meeting with investigators
plantation
Zanchi, Anna
Zeidler, Frank
Thirteen-year-old Emmett Till poses in front of the family television on December 27, 1954. Copyright © Estate of Mamie Till-Mobley. Reprinted by permission.
Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Bradley, in a mother-son portrait taken in their home on December 27, 1954. Copyright © Estate of Mamie Till-Mobley. Reprinted by permission.
Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market located in Money, Mississippi. It was here where Emmett Till had a brief encounter with twenty-one-year-old Carolyn Bryant on Wednesday, August 24, 1955, that set off the chain of events that led to his kidnapping and murder. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Carolyn Bryant. AP Photo.
Twenty-four-year-old Roy Bryant, husband of Carolyn Bryant, was tried for kidnapping and murdering Emmett Till. Behind him sits his twin brother, Raymond Bryant. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted
by permission.
Thirty-six-year-old J. W. Milam, half-brother of Roy Bryant, who stood trial for kidnapping and murdering Emmett Till. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Home of Mose Wright, East Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till was kidnapped from this house in the early morning hours of Sunday, August 28, 1955. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Mose Wright, holding a pair of pants belonging to his nephew, Emmett Till. He stands in the room where Till was sleeping at the time of the abduction. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Leflore County sheriff George Smith, who arrested Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam for the kidnapping of Emmett Till. Robert Williams/Commercial Appeal/Landov.
Tallahatchie County sheriff H. C. Strider, under whose jurisdiction the murder of Emmett Till fell. AP photo.
Mamie Bradley collapses at Chicago’s Central Street train station as her son’s body arrives by train on Friday morning, September 2, 1955. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. Visual Materials from the NAACP Records.
Emmett Till as he appeared in his casket. His mother insisted on an open-casket funeral so that “the world can see what they did to my boy.” Chicago Defender. Reprinted by permission.
Mamie Bradley buries her son at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, Tuesday, September 6, 1955. That same day in Mississippi, J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant were indicted for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Tallahatchie County courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where the Emmett Till murder trial was held September 19–23, 1955. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Circuit Judge Curtis Swango, who presided at the Emmett Till murder trial. He was praised by all sides for his fairness during the proceedings. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Prosecution team. From left: Tallahatchie County attorney J. Hamilton Caldwell, District Attorney Gerald W. Chatham, and specially appointed prosecutor Robert B. Smith. Robert Williams/Commercial Appeal/Landov.
Defense team. From left: J. W. Kellum, C. Sidney Carlton, Harvey Henderson, John W. Whitten, and J. J. Breland. These five attorneys constituted the entire Sumner bar. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Mamie Bradley, her cousin Rayfield Mooty (left), and Bradley’s father, Wiley Nash “John” Carthan (back), leave Chicago to attend the murder trial in Sumner. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
The all-white, all-male jury that would decide the fate of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. NYWT and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection.
Members of the black press, crowded around a card table meant to accommodate only four people, sit segregated from white reporters. Although white reporters were allowed to sit behind the jury and closer to the witness chair, black reporters sat on the opposite side of the courtroom behind the railing separating court officials from spectators. Beginning on day two of the trial, Sheriff Strider replaced the table with a new one that accommodated ten seats. From Shocking the Conscience: A Reporter’s Account of the Civil Rights Movement by Simeon Booker, with Carol McCabe Booker (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2013).
Mose Wright, the star witness for the prosecution, heads into the courtroom to testify on Wednesday morning, September 21, 1955. Robert Williams/Commercial Appeal/Landov.
Mose Wright stands and identifies the men who abducted his nephew, Emmett Till, from his home. Corbis/Bettman.
State witness Chester Miller, manager of the Century Burial Association in Greenwood, Mississippi. Miller took Emmett Till’s body from the Tallahatchie River to the mortuary, where pathologist Luther B. Otken briefly examined it. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Defense attorney J. W. Kellum holds a key piece of evidence—the ring found on Emmett Till’s finger when the body was retrieved from the Tallahatchie River. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
The cotton gin fan that was used to weigh down Emmett Till’s body in the Tallahatchie River. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division. NYWT and the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection.
Surprise witnesses for the prosecution who were located after the trial began. From left: Mandy Bradley, Willie Reed, and Walter Billingsley. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Shed (on the left) located on the Sturdivant plantation west of Drew, Mississippi, where Willie Reed heard sounds of a beating on Sunday morning, August 31, 1955. The section to the right (behind the truck) with closed door contains a small room where four white men beat and murdered Emmett Till. Ed Clark/The LIFE Picture Collection /Getty Images.
Dr. T. R. M. Howard (center) was the key figure in tracking down witnesses for the prosecution. He stands with Michigan representative Charles C. Diggs Jr. (right), who attended the trial as a private observer. Surrounding them are John Carthan (left), Walter Billingsley (back), Mamie Bradley, and Mandy Bradley (front right). Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Juanita Milam (left) holds son Bill, as her husband, J. W. Milam, balances son Harvey while conferring with attorney J. W. Kellum. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
The defendants and their wives celebrate their acquittal for the murder of Emmett Till on Friday, September 23, 1955. From left: Roy Bryant, Carolyn Bryant, Juanita Milam, and J. W. Milam. Ned R. McWherter Library, Special Collections, University of Memphis. Reprinted by permission.
Twelve-year-old Simeon Wright sits on the bed he shared with Emmett Till on the night of Till’s kidnapping and murder. The Wright family, like other prosecution witnesses, fled to Chicago after the trial to begin life anew. Commercial Appeal/Landov.
Mamie Till-Mobley in the 1990s. She never gave up the pursuit of justice for her son and always wanted to see his case reopened. Copyright © Estate of Mamie Till-Mobley. Reprinted by permission.
Filmmaker Keith Beauchamp. In the late 1990s, Beauchamp began research for a documentary film project on the Emmett Till case, working closely with Mamie Till-Mobley. Results of his findings, which included interviews with witnesses telling their story on film for the first time, were turned over to the FBI and played a major role in the 2004 decision to reopen the case. His film, The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, was released in theaters in 2005 and later played on Court TV (now TruTV). Copyright © Amanda Sharise Anderson. Printed by permission.
Stanley Nelson, whose documentary The Murder of Emmett Till premiered on PBS’s The American Experience in January 2003. His film, along with his uncovering of new witnesses, was also reviewed by the FBI. At screenings, Nelson passed out postcards for audience members to send to the Mississippi attorney general’s office encouraging officials to reopen the case. The film went on to win an Emmy in 2003. Firelight Media. Printed by permission.
Civil rights activist Alvin Sykes, who contacted Mamie Till-Mobley a week prior to her death and formed the Emmett Till Justice Campaign. His efforts helped get the attention of the federal government, which eventually opened an investigation into the Till case in May 2004. Kansas City Library. Printed by permission.
FBI agent Dale Killinger, of Oxford, Mississippi, conducted a federal investigation into the Emmett Till murder from May 2004 until November 2005. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Printed by permission.
Shed near Drew, Mississippi, where Emmett Till was beaten and killed, as it appears today. In 2005, the
FBI tested the shed with luminol and sifted through the dirt floor with hopes of finding fifty-year-old clues to the murder. Copyright © Amanda Sharise Anderson. Printed by permission.
District Attorney Joyce Chiles, whose jurisdiction over Mississippi’s Fourth Judicial District included Leflore, Sunflower, and Washington Counties. It would be up to her to decide whether the FBI’s findings should lead to the prosecution of any living individuals for the murder of Emmett Till. AP Photo/Rogelio Solis.
Event held on October 2, 2007, in front of the courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, sponsored by the bipartisan Emmett Till Memorial Commission. On this occasion, the county officially expressed regret and sorrow for the murder and unjust verdict in the Till murder trial. Author’s collection.
Simeon Wright speaks at the event in Sumner, Mississippi, on October 2, 2007, and accepts the resolution signed by the fourteen members of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission. Author’s collection.
Wheeler Parker Jr. speaks at the event in Sumner, Mississippi, on October 2, 2007. Author’s collection.
State senator David L. Jordan, who attended the 1955 Emmett Till murder trial, served as master of ceremonies for the event in Sumner, Mississippi, on October 2, 2007. Author’s collection.
Former governor William F. Winter speaks to the crowd at the event in Sumner, Mississippi, on October 2, 2007. Author’s collection.
Betty and Bill Pearson, who hosted several members of the press in their home during the 1955 Emmett Till murder trial. Betty Pearson attended all five days of the trial, sitting with the white press, along with her friend Florence Mars. One of Tallahatchie County’s few white liberals, she was elected cochair of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission in 2006 and served until moving to Davis, California, in 2009. Copyright © Amanda Sharise Anderson. Printed by permission.
Jerome Little, president of the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors, speaks before unveiling a new marker on the grounds of the courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, on October 2, 2007. Directly behind him stands Robert L. Grayson, Tutwiler, Mississippi, mayor and cochair of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission. Tallahatchie County sheriff William L. Brewer with sunglasses stands to the left. Author’s collection.
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