Till, who was from Chicago, was visiting his relatives in Money when he allegedly flirted with a white woman named Carolyn Bryant at Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market. Four days later, Bryant's husband, Roy, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, abducted Till from his uncle's home in the middle of the night.
Till was taken to a barn, where he was beaten and tortured for hours. He was then shot in the head and thrown into the Tallahatchie River. His body was found three days later, badly decomposed and disfigured.
An autopsy revealed that Till had been beaten with a blunt object, shot in the head, and had his right eye gouged out. His body also showed signs of torture, including burns and cuts.
The two suspects, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were arrested and charged with Till's murder. However, they were acquitted by an all-white jury after a six-day trial. The trial was widely criticized for its lack of fairness, and the verdict was seen as a miscarriage of justice.
The Emmett Till case garnered national attention and sparked outrage across the country. It became a rallying cry for the civil rights movement, and helped to raise awareness of the brutality and discrimination that African Americans faced in the South.
In 2004, the United States Department of Justice reopened the Emmett Till case, but declined to prosecute Bryant or Milam due to insufficient evidence. In 2007, Congress passed a resolution expressing regret for the Senate's failure to pass anti-lynching legislation in the past.
The Emmett Till Memorial Commission was established in 2007 to preserve and commemorate Till's legacy. In 2018, a memorial to Till was dedicated at the site where his body was found.