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60 Minutes - The Murder of Emmett Till

Added Feb 25, 2022 •

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In 2004, 60 Minutes correspondent Ed Bradley reported on the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till

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60 Minutes rewind for many of you the name Emmett Till May not sound familiar but what happened to him in 1955 stunned the nation Emmett Till was a young boy who was murdered in Mississippi for whistling at a white woman and his death was a spark that ignited the civil rights movement in America to white men were put on trial for killing in spite of strong evidence against them they were acquitted in about an hour by an all-white jury why are we telling you this now because this past spring the US justice department opened a new investigation based on evidence suggesting that more than I do some people may have been involved in the murder of Emmett Till and that at least five of them are still alive those five could face criminal prosecution and before we tell you about them let us tell you what happened to Emmett Till he was 14 years old when he was kidnapped tortured and killed the two men who were acquitted of his murder were Roy Bryant and his half-brother JW Milam punish anyone for the crime made headlines across the country and around the world exposing the racial hatred and unequal Justice for blacks that was pervasive in the segregated South where laws dictated where eat and drink and where they could sleep but Emmett Till wasn't from the south he was from Chicago and just visiting relatives in Mississippi in August of 1955 when nightmare began image 16 year old cousin travel to Mississippi with him the family was reluctant to let Emma take the trip afraid his free-spirited nature could get him into trouble in the Deep South cousin who traveled with him his wheeler Parker Junior now 65 years old and he's a little funny love jokes you know you just was there in the center of everything he was kind of a natural born leader why would that be a problem play Mississippi by way to be a problem a problem because of the mississippians what he thought was his son or a joke wasn't funny to them so before you went down there did anybody say look here the do's and the don'ts about going to Mississippi you do this you don't do that or yes that's routine you always prepared to go to Mississippi to stay alive because you know once you got to Mississippi you had no protection under the law you couldn't call anyone help once you with that if you got in trouble for Emmett Till the trouble started here at Brian's meat market in grocery store in Money Mississippi back then most of the customers at the store were black workers from nearby cotton the store was owned by a white couple Roy Bryant and his twenty-one-year-old wife Carolyn who was behind the counter the afternoon that Emmett Till in his cousin came in to buy some candy as he was leaving the store Emmett Till Carolyn Bryant and she went to get a gun Simeon ride him until his cousin who lived in Mississippi was 12 years old on that day when they went to Brian's grocery store today it's 62 he says the song Emmett whistling is as Vivid to him now as it was 50 years ago when he will so we all we ran we jumped in the car and we got out of there just because he was oh yes this is like if you if your kid 30 Rock break a window you don't hang around and see what's going to happen and you knew that in Mississippi at that time 1955 that was something you didn't that was something you didn't do Emmett Till when is cousins raced home that day and I hope nothing would come of what Emma done but three days later Carolyn Bryan's husband Roy and his half-brother JW Milam went looking for him until in the middle of the night and fell him and his cousins at the home of Reverend mosrite and it's late great-uncle who recounted what happened next Sunday morning about 2:30 I Heard a Voice at the door and I who was it and it said this is mr. bright I want to talk with you and the boy and when I open the door that was a man standing with pistols and money turn flashlight in Emmett Till in Simeon Right Moves right Sun where to sleep together in one room and Wheeler Parker was in another room awakened by the sounds of angry voices with me because in my heart I say I'm getting ready to die and it's 16 I wasn't ready to die and I can just feel like the whole bed was shaking in the end these guys come with a pistol in one hand and a flashlight in the oven and for some reason I close my eyes and I open them and they just passed right on by me went to the next room I woke up now I'm standing over the bed with their one had a gun with the JW Milam Asawa they wanted me to lay back down and go back to sleep and they ordered him it to get up and put his clothes on and my mother was pleading and begging with a lot to take in my dad was pleading with him and my mother then set time off at 2 to give the money to leave him alone and Roy Bryant kind of hesitated but JW Milan he didn't hesitate at all he didn't even think about taking money embedded take Emmett and that's what he proceeded to do before taking Emmett Till out of the house send me a Wright says JW Milam threatened his father Reverend mowers right before they left my room he turned in that's my daddy how old my daddy told him that he was 64 and JW mine and see if you tell anybody about this she won't live to get 65 or what did you think that this man wasn't afraid of the law here he marched into home take out my cousin and wasn't afraid the law is going to bother him this must have been terrifying for you I mean you were just u113 yet lying in bed in the middle of the night to white men come in one with a gun and tells your cousin to get up and get dressed I've been scared to death and I want a free but that was a sadness Over the Hole you can cut the grief in the in the house because after they left no one said anything on it I like to hear my dad say was on August 31st 1855 three days after he'd been abducted Emmett Till's mangled body was found by a boy fishing in the waters of the Tallahatchie River not far from money his body has been weighted down by a 75 lb of fat from a cotton gin attached to his neck by barbed wire he's been badly tortured and I was detached and ear cut off and he appeared to have been shot in the head his death was the birth of a powerful and lasting symbol of Southern racism in the 20th century the local sheriff 8C Strider of Plantation owner and Arden segregationist tried to have a body buried immediately in this small Cemetery in play Mississippi hoping no one in the outside world would ever find out what happened to Emmett Till but Emmett's mother Mamie battled with Mississippi authorities and was able to have her son's body returned to Chicago so she could identify him before she buried it maybe till was determined never to let anyone forget the brutal way in which her son was killed she described the chilling stories in one of the final interview she gave before her last year at age 81 I looked at the bridge of his nose and it looked like someone had taken a meat Chopper and chopped it I looked at his teeth because I took so much pride in his teeth his teeth were the prettiest things I've ever seen in my life I thought and I only saw two spent the rest of it just been knocked out and I was looking at his ears and that's when I discovered a whole about here and I can see daylight on the other side what's the number to necessary to shoot it from 50,000 people nearly all of them black turned out for Emmett Till's funeral in an enormous public display reef and solidarity made me to order the funeral director to place our son in an open casket and permitted this shocking photograph of image corpse which was published in Jet magazine in across it ignited protests Civil Disobedience and backlash that would consume this out through the 60s I said I want the world to see this because people saw but it happened to this little 14 year old boy they knew then that not only were men black men in danger but black chick Elgin as well the same day that Emmett Till was buried Roy Bryant and JW Milam were indicted on charges of kidnapping and murder their trial was held in the small Mississippi town of Sumner billed as a good place to raise a boy the star witness was Emmett Till late great uncle Mose Wright who bravely stood up in the courtroom and pointed his finger at Milam and Brian as the ones would come to home and abducted Emmett Till at gunpoint another key witness was an eighteen-year-old sharecropper named Willie read who said that on the morning after Emmett Till was abducted he's on a truck with 6 people JW Milam to other white men and two black men who worked for Myla soon after Reed said he saw the same truck parked in front of a barn manage that the time by Milam's brother and heard the scream boy he presume was Emmett Till today at age 67 read says he still cannot get those sounds out of his mind and I said to myself according to Willie Reed and another witness for white men came out of including Milan who walked right up to read carrying a 45 caliber pistol Milan was coming out of the barn so he asks is that listen did you hear anything else or no why would you say that to me you had heard something you would heard screaming you hurt somebody being beaten yeah I saw that in being bi but then you see my pants on in 45 on the side then he asked you what you do say anything you knew that's what he wanted to hear right when they found the body did you put two and two together and think that what you would heard going on in that be and that that was Emmett Till I'm sure I wish you would I wish you was fearing for his life after testifying against Milam and Bryant Willie Reed was smuggled out of Mississippi he went to Chicago he suffered a nervous breakdown and was hospitalized you're good man. A lot of Courage for 18 year old I think there's a lot of people who would have walked away from it wouldn't've said a word now I am I couldn't I couldn't walk away from because I was 14 I've never been to Mississippi in July and to come and visit grandfather ND she limps I mean I saw when we need to picture you saw his body what it was right then I knew that I couldn't say no attorneys were JW Milam and Roy Bryant warn the all-white jury that if they voted to convict quote your forefathers will turn over in their graves it took the jury just an hour and 7 minutes to return a verdict of not guilty one juror said it wouldn't have and that long but they stopped to take a soda pop break to make it look good Milam and Bryant were congratulated by their many supporters and kiss their wives in Celebration I'm just glad it's over with for months after the trial knowing that double jeopardy protected them from being tried again Roy Bryant and JW Milam admitted to a reporter from look magazine they had in fact tortured and murdered Emmett Till They were paid $4,000 for their story in it my mom said I just made up my mind Chicago boy I said I'm tired of them sending you kind down here to stir up trouble you I'm going to make an example of you if it tells family is had to live with that for nearly 50 years that is Killers fast and nothing ever happened to them with a new government investigation underway send me and right hope someone will finally be held accountable for the murder of his cousin confessed that they kill Emmett the people of the state of Mississippi said they didn't we need to reconcile that statement and we need to send a message to those who are committing crimes against blacks like this that you can get by but you can't get away Justice eventually is going to find you when the US justice department announced recently that it was opening a new investigation into the 1955 murder of 14 year old is Emmett Till It said the case was a quote grotesque miscarriage of justice and that it is examining evidence pointing to the possible involvement of more than a dozen people in the crime writer Brian and JW Milam who were tried and acquitted are dead but a number of others are still alive and could face criminal charges for their role in Emmett Till's abduction beating murder and attempts to cover it up the justice department says it is largely because of this young man that the case has been reopened his name is Keith Beauchamp and amateur filmmaker from Louisiana like a lot of people in this country he was moved by the shocking photograph of Emmett Till's corpse song while looking through old magazines when he was just ten years old and ever since Beauchamp has devoted much of his life to uncovering the truth about what happened to him until after seeing the photograph is Shockley tremendous and a came in and set me down with it and explain to me at that time the story of Emmett Till and it hit me hard it really hit me hard I heard the same story I remember seeing this picture in that jet when I was a kid I think Emmett Till and I were probably about the same age and 1955 14 years old and growing up in in Philadelphia you knew vaguely about the South but like cuz my parents had protected me from the realities of stopped when I saw that picture and I said hey that's when I got my first lesson about this elf has a story when they first saw that photograph is stuck with me that how to disperse be killed this way a youth you know I was like me it was amazing to me that something like that could happen Beauchamp told us that after reviewing thousands of old documents and talkin to numerous Witnesses with knowledge of the crime he believes that at least 14 people may have been involved in the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till and then five of them are still alive you describe much of this to to Federal and State investigator and their reaction to that information their reaction was overwhelming they can't believe that a person just young would be so interested in finding out the truth I guess they were really starting to that I did so much research on this case who is Senator Charles Schumer a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee which has oversight of the justice department after meeting with Keith Beauchamp and his attorney Ken Thompson and examining the research Beauchamp was gathering for. memory film he was working on Senator Schumer urged the department to reopen the Emmett Till case saying it was never fully investigated 50 years ago how would you characterize the conduct of the federal law enforcement agencies years of this federal law enforcement back then and even many years later reflected the attitude of America do these things happen this is how it is down there it is a stain and will be a state both the Mississippi law enforcement officials and the United States federal government justice department that it took a young filmmaker to bring to light what they should have brought to light in 19 55 Emmett Till's mother Mamie tried to get her government to bring the truth to light she send a telegram to President Dwight Eisenhower urging the Justice be meted out to all persons involved in the beastly sing a song in spite of FBI records and news reports at the time deciding specific individuals President Eisenhower didn't take any action until his mother died before the government reopened the case this spring the case based largely on the research of Keith Beauchamp among his discoveries was Henry Lee Loggins now 81 years old and living in Ohio at the time of the murder was working for JW Milam FBI files from 1955 refer to Witnesses who claim they saw a Loggins on the truck with him until after he was abducted one respected black newspaper at the time Eve reported the logins allegedly held him until down is Milam and Bryant Orchard in Loggins was also reportedly ordered by them to attach the fan from a cotton gin around his neck just before 10 him into the Tallahatchie River Henry Lee Loggins is now under investigation by the justice department when we talked to him recently he denied the allegations that have dogged him for half a century that would sit here until a lot I wouldn't a I ain't showing nothing how do you think your name came up I mean not just a newspaper articles but also with the FBI why did people say that Henry Lee Loggins was there today how do you explain all the stories that just won't go away that you participated in the in the abduction and kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till I wouldn't but you tossed his body in the river which I wasn't I don't know nothing about that kid what are you going to do when that Bianca Devin's same thing and I didn't know I wouldn't have five other black men have also been implicated in some way in the abduction and murder of Emmett Till if any of the allegations are true the question is why knowing now that black man could possibly been involved I just keep taking you know about what could have been going through a materials mine you know staying is and how explain that that they would turn on one of their own we believe that they were forced to participate in the crime is going to even be down by Emmett Till it was shocking at first because for so long you've heard you're a white man wear a bob that's what I was it was a white and black man you can help but you know the amazed right said there was a black man on the porch JW Milam and Roy Bryant game to take Emmett Till he also said he heard a woman's voice that night coming from a truck parked outside he believed it was Roy Bryant's wife Carol the woman Emmett Till had what's up several days earlier inside her husband's grocery store in Money Mississippi mosrite son send me a name it's cousin says his father told him the same thing I was another man standing on the phone my dad talked about it that was another person in the truck because when they might send it out to the truck and they asked the person inside the truck is this she want my dad said he heard a woman's voice going to find Emmett has the boy that did that whistling so that must have been Bryant's wife at that time we were at wife and after 48 and some ideas that nothing has arisen to dispel the belief apparently the local authorities back then believed it too and according to FBI communicate issued an arrest warrant for Carolyn Bryant on suspicion of kidnapping but she was no arrested or charged today we've learned that Carolyn Bryant is a focus of the Justice Department's new investigation suspected of having assisted her husband Roy and JW Milam in the Abduction of Emmett Till she divorced in 1979 and has since remarried and moved several times she disappeared from public view until we found her now read 70 and old is Carolyn Dunham living in green Mississippi Walmart camera man was able to take these pictures of her when I went to her house she wouldn't answer the door moments later her son Frank Bryant arrived and we tried to talk to can we talk to mrs. Mom can you talk to me can I call you get her to come out I have some questions I'd like to ask you about him until I'm sure I'm sorry it's too late what you come out and talk to her tell me again if you want I'm back I said goodbye goodbye we called the house later in the day and neither Frank Bryant nor his mother Carolyn would discuss the Emmett Till case any further we've learned that the justice department could complete its investigation within a year and criminal charges against at least five who could follow but the justice department and the FBI declined to comment on what would Justice be in my opinion there ought to be a full trial and if their convictions even though the people are old who did it they all go to jail well that may finally bring a measure of Justice to the family of Emmett Till it also brings back the paint these memories are still sharp after 50 years oh yes I've never go away why would anyone hate anyone to beat him and kill him and talk to him like that how can a human being do that to another all the cause of a whistle

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60 Minutes - The Murder of Emmett Till

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