Their account appeared just four months after the acquittal. They had two sons and lived in two small rooms in the back of the store. BACK in 1955 Emmett Till was wrongfully accused of offending a white woman in her family's grocery store. No one ever did time for Emmett Till's murder. Check your inbox to be the first to know the hottest news. Interviewer: Have you studied the case by reading the papers perhaps? The early 1950s and 1960s is considered the Civil Rights Era. Akilah Kweli, SPECIAL THANKS Milam and Roy Bryant, two white men from Mississippi who were. Roy Bryant: I'm just glad it's over with. Frightened, Emmett and his group left. You couldn't seeand when they left, I was still afraid and so I'm waitin' for them to come back. Ernest Withers, Photographer:The man had laid it out that "We got 22 seats over here for you white boys. You just as well to get ready to go." Narrator:Moses Wright stood and pointed first at Roy Bryant, then at J.W. Clarence Strider Jr.:People are used to doin' thang normal around here. My eyes were so full of tears until I couldn't see. We ain't going to mix 'em. (Enter your ZIP code for information on American Experience events and screening in your area.). Both men were ostracized. Notes taken during your interview are added to your application for review. Ah, so Wednesday went by, Thursday went by, nothin'. James E. Dunford John Herbers, Journalist:The atmosphere among whites in Tallahatchie county and other-- the whole surrounding area was one of absolute scorn at the fact that these men were being put on trial for their lives. Mamie Till:I asked him, "Mr. Rayner, do you have a hammer?" It was the beginning of the focusing on the problems between the races in the Deep South that culminated in the ultimate Civil Rights battles of the, of the rest of the 50s and, and, and into the 60s. J. Fred MacDonald & Associates People have been wondering what happened to Roy Bryant, the co-accused in Emmett Tills murder. Lawyer for Idaho murder suspect Bryan Kohberger thinks evidence can be 'attacked' Idaho murder victim had moved out of home but came back to see roommate The woman accused of setting off the 1955. Their acquittal created massive outrage and was the spark in the upsurge of activism and resistance that was later referred to as the Civil Rights movement. After Emmett Till's murder trial, Carolyn and Roy's store in Money was closed upon the African-American community's boycott. Stock Footage, Sheriff Strider on NAACP:We never have any trouble until some of our Southern niggers go up North and the NAACP talks to 'em and they come back home. Description. She stormed out. At some point, Roy attempted to join the police force. "Hell no, that's shit you talking." Moses Wright's testimony in the trial of his great-nephew'skillers stands as one of the bravest moments in American history. William Winter, Governor:It was argued in coffee shops all over the Deep South, that "If we give on this, then we'll, we'll start giving on everything else and the first thing you know, we won't have a segregated society, and black people will be taking over in this part of the country.". Just anything, just any excuse to acquit these two men. Narrator:Mamie's decision would make her son's death a touchstone for a generation. Milam was at a store in nearby Minter City when the Leflore County sheriff caught up with him. I would have hated to have gone up against any of those guys. Magnolia Cooksey-Mathious, Classmate:I knew Emmett Till. Narrator:Fifty thousand people in Chicago had seen Emmett Till's corpse with their own eyes. People disappeared. Jerry Mitchell Police can now seek her arrest. Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, Corbis, Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market, Chicago Defender, Sign up for the American Experience newsletter! And a push to implement the new law on school desegregation had whites from the delta to the statehouse spitting fire. Roy Bryant, an ex-soldier, owned and ran Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market in the town of Money. James Eastland, Senator:You are not going to permit the NAACP to take over your schools. Milam laid bare the racism that ruled Mississippi. Carolyn testified under oath, but outside the presence of the jury, that Emmett said "ugly remarks" to her before whistling. Narrator:In August, Emmett's great uncle, Moses Wright, visited Chicago and invited Emmett and his cousin Wheeler home to Mississippi. Investigations from civil-rights leader Dr. T.R.M. (Laughs) It was somethin'. J.W. But they were still white folks. Brandon Teena's story: Background, what happened, and documentaries. Roy's half-brother J.W. I'm gonna carry you dead or alive. Roy, Carolyn and J. W. became celebrities. John Herbers, Journalist:Sheriff Strider was a big, fat, plain talking, obscene talking sheriff you would expect to find in the South. Narrator:Scores of reporters descended on the Delta. Soundprint Media Center According to the interview Milam and Bryant gave to Huie, Milam killed Emmett with his . 2003 WGBH Educational Foundation In the minds of many, they livein history as the trio that got away with murder. Richard Gardner Though exactly what happened next is unconfirmed. Milam, showed up armed at the rural Leflore County home of Till's great-uncle, Mose Wright, looking for the youth. I saw him he had khaki pants on, had a green nylon shirt, and a .45 on his side. In. The Till case had become a major international news story. Le Monde What was Roy Bryants ethnicity? We were goin' pretty fast and dust is flying behind us. Corbis Images They agreed not to tell their husbands, who were out of town on a trucking job. The prosecution's best witness was Moses Wright, who had clearly seen the men who took Emmett Till from his home. The high sheriff come in there, didn't even knock on no door or nothin'. In 1981, Milam died of cancer of the bone. And, of course, Emmett Till begged us not to tell my grandfather what had took place. Oudie Brown, Mississippi resident The next day, Roy Bryant was arrested for kidnapping. 24-year-old at the time of Emmett's death, Bryant confronted his wife Carolyn when he came to know that she was "approached" by an African American boy. Leon Finney Jr. At the same time, of course, they wrote about it with great relish because it was a good story. The next morning, Emmett and his mother grabbed his bags and rushed off to the 63rd Street station. I say "Who?" Is you goin?" And Emmett was a fun young man, just like any other young teenager. Richard Heard:It was grotesque. We put him back in the truck. Narrator:On August 19th, Mamie gave Emmett the ring that had belonged to his father. Lamar, much like his brother, has been kept away from public view in the decades since his family first came into public notoriety. Milam, abducted Till and tortured him to death. He laughed. You could hold your head up in Chicago. ", Mamie Till:As the jury retired, the black people who were standing around the walls began to ease out of the door. But his murder, and the trial and acquittal of his killers, sent a powerful message: If change was going to come, people would have to put themselves on the line. One of Roy Bryants defence lawyers told National Public Radios Soundprint program in 1994 that he regretted defending the case. Are you searching for more information about KNaan? A group of Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, working with talented filmmaker Keith Beauchamp uncovered a warrant for the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham, the wife of Ryan Bryant. Stock Footage, News Anchor Reports Till Verdict tape:In the Emmett Till Murder trial, the all white jury has acquitted the two white defendants accused of killing the 14-year-old Negro youth. Those who have not been to the Delta find themselves gasping at the sight as they come over the lowest hills and see that expanse of flat agricultural land. Donham's 2007 interview, when she was 72, is being published for the first time. He feared paying for his crimes before he died. Clark County Tribune I said, "No, Mr. Rayner, let the people see what I've seen." Betty Pearson, Mississippi Resident:Part of that culture was that the women were put on pedestals and they were some sort of, ah idealization of whatever it means to be woman or to be female. Narrator:When Mamie Till arrived, she had to make her way through an unsympathetic crowd gathered on the courthouse lawn. Whites looking at you. William Bicket, POST PRODUCTION Her family ran a small grocery, Bryant's Grocery & Meat Market, that sold provisions to black sharecroppers and their kids. Milam, on left, his wife, second from left, Roy Bryant, far right, and his wife, Carolyn Bryant, sit together in a courtroom in Sumner, Miss, on Sept. 25, 1955 . Wheeler Parker:We all got a-scared and someone said, "She's going to get a pistol." The Commercial Appeal However, he married Vera Jo Orman later in life. When they were acquitted, the men later sold their story for $4,000 to reporter William Bradford Huie. In the summer of 1955, two men, both of them white, abducted a 14-year-old African-American boy named Emmett Till from his great-uncle's house in Money, Miss. Interviewer: And Mrs. Bryant? Milam laid bare the racism that ruled Mississippi. Special Collections, University of Mississippi Libraries Milam, who were found not guilty in a trial for the 1955 murder of black teenager Emmett Till, confess in an article in Look magazine published Jan. 24, 1956. As I kept looking, I saw a hole, which I presumed was a bullet hole and I could look through that hole and see daylight on the other side. Mamie Till Mobley, Mother:I saw a hole, which I presumed, was a bullet hole and I could look through that hole and see daylight on the other side. It's been almost three months since Will Smith shocked the celebrity world by slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars. Roy and Carolyn Bryant and J. W. Milam will always be linked to the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. Grinberg Film Libraries I passed, they still beatin', they still beatin'. Everybody knew we were under attack and that attack was symbolized by the attack on a 14-year-old boy. Roy Bryant's Death. Narrator:Among African Americans, there was outright fear. But, he said, "I had decided to tell it like it was.". Streamline Films, Inc. It was traumatic for me for -- for months. It was like a nightmare. I just in my mind I kept sayin', "I'll see him again," you know. A German bullet tore clear through his chest; his body bears "multiple shrapnel wounds." Of his medals, he cherishes one: combat infantryman's badge. You are not going to permit the NAACP to control your state. And I wondered, was it necessary to shoot him? This was on a Wednesday. In their cross-examination, Bryant and Milam's attorneys peppered her with hostile questions, and then presented the main argument for the defense: The corpse pulled from the Tallahatchie River was not Emmett Till. They confessed how they killed the young man. Clarence Strider Jr., son of Mississippi sheriff From their roots in slavery to the Wild West, hippies, high fashion and hip-hop, jeans are the fabric on which the history of American ideology and politics is writ large. So I said, "Naw." 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