In 1955, a single, black mother from Chicago, sends her fourteen year old son off to visit relatives "down in Mississippi". The mother, Mamie Till, a gentle, loving woman, cared for her only son very deeply. He was her child, her "baby", and he loved his mother just as much. Miss Till once recounted how, at the age of 11, Emmett stood up to his estranged father, who had come by the house and threatened to cause harm to Mamie. Emmett grabbed a butcher knife, prepared to defend his mother. It was this loving, caring, nurturing relationship between a mother and her son that was abruptly halted when Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam kidnapped, beat, tortured, and killed Emmett Till during his visit to Mississippi.
Not only was Emmett Till brutally beaten, he was shot in the head. Teeth knocked out of his mouth. An ear was missing. One eye hung from its socket. An almost 75-lb. cotton gin had been tied to Emmett, before his body was tossed in a river. A teen, fishing on the Tallahatchie River, found Till's body. In an effort to cover up the brutal killing of this FOURTEEN YEAR OLD BLACK MALE, local authorities ordered for him to be immediately buried. He was placed in a casket which was then sealed. The brutality of Emmett's murder, even Emmett's murder itself, was supposed to remain a secret. Authorities in Mississippi did not want it revealed that they were not civil to blacks in the south, that its treatment of African-Americans was downright inhumane. No, this was supposed to remain a dirty little secret, and it probably would have, had Mamie Till refused to have her son buried in Mississippi. She insisted on having her son's body shipped to Chicago, where she requested an open-casket funeral for her son. She wanted the nation, better yet, the WORLD, to see what "they" had done to her son. She wanted justice for her son's murder. She died in 2003, and never saw that justice, for even with the strength of the evidence and eyewitness testimony, Till's murderers were set free.
I don't know how old I was when I first heard of Emmett Till, but I was a very young child. What I do know is that there was a lump in my throat, a knot in my stomach, and anger in my heart when I heard of what had become of this young man. His life was cut short, at the age of fourteen. When I was fourteen, I felt that I had my whole life ahead of me. I had so many plans...just into high school, thinking about boys, playing ball with my friends--these were the things on my mind. But at fourteen, Emmett was being beaten for whistling, SIMPLY WHISTLING, at a white woman. His captors laughed as he was beaten, punched, slapped, shot--downright tortured. His life, his dreams, the dreams of his mother, were taken when he was only fourteen. Thinking of Emmett still does something to me--that same familiar knot is there, that lump in the throat, the anger, the disbelief, especially the sadness, they are all still there. How can something this outrageous happen in the United States of America, and Emmett never receive justice? Even 50 years later? Even though the Tills never received justice, Emmett's death sent a shocking message to the world about the state of civil rights in America, and galvanized a movement. There would be no more Emmett Tills...
Oh, but there would be, and his name: Trayvon Martin. On February 26, while watching the NBA All-Star game with his family, Trayvon went to the store for his brother and himself, and purchased Skittles and an Iced Tea. On the way home, he was followed by a self-appointed community watch volunteer, who claimed that Trayvon looked "suspicious". Before Trayvon made it home, approximately 2 minutes, or about 70 yards from his father's door, Trayvon was confronted, shot in the chest, and killed by George Zimmerman. Trayvon only held an iced tea, and the packet of Skittles that he had purchased. He was unarmed. And only 17 years old. Zimmerman, 28 years old, at least 250 lbs, twice a big as Trayvon, claims self-defense, even though Trayvon was unarmed, and by even Zimmerman's accounts, had attempted to flee from Zimmerman, whom he felt threatened by. Trayvon didn't understand why he was being followed, and if he could speak to you now, he would tell you that he does not understand why he had to die. The outrage is not just at his death, but at the fact that his murderer has not even been arrested. In fact, Zimmerman is still in possession of a key piece of evidence--the murder weapon.
Millions of people around the world are flabbergasted, angered, and saddened by this child's murder. No one understands, save the Sanford Police Chief and Zimmerman, himself, why an unarmed young man, an African-American child, had to die, just trying to get home, to finish watching a basketball game that he would never see. Had Rev. Al Sharpton and others not become involved, had the main stream media not picked up this story of injustice, then Trayvon's senseless murder may have just been swept under the rug, just as authorities had tried to do when Emmett Till was killed. "If no one knows, it will just go away..." But just as the world had it's eyes on this great country when the mutilated corpse of Emmett Till was placed on the covers of news publications like
Jet magazine, so are the eyes of the world on this country as we allow a child murderer to walk the streets, FREE.
Will there be justice for Trayvon? In the Till case, at least his murderers were arrested. They were tried by a group of their peers, who felt that the 75-lb cotton gin tied to Till's body was worth more than Till's life, so they were found not guilty. Trayvon's murderer has not even been arrested, and Trayvon has been dead almost a month! Although there are some differences between the Till and Martin murderers, there are too many similarities. And the most glaring one of all: to date, the families of both murdered children have not received justice. Will there be justice for Trayvon? Or will we allow the message to prevail that some lives are worth more than others, especially if the life lost is black? Can this nation stand up, and answer the call for justice, showing the world that we are not the same country of 50 years ago, when a child named Emmett Till could be murdered and his killers are allowed to go free? People all over the world are standing up for justice for this child, saying, NO MORE! Blacks, whites, and everyone in between see the injustice in this unarmed youth being shot. He cannot be another Emmett Till. He cannot. Or can he?
Again, I feel that familiar lump in my throat, that knot in my stomach, and anger in my heart. Only there is more sadness, and disbelief, that even in 2012, with the progress that we have supposedly made, and even electing an African-American President, our youth are still being murdered, and with no repercussion. The lives of our black youth are valued no more in 2012 than in 1955. RIP Trayvon. RIP Emmett. We will continue to fight for you.
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