WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.600 align:middle line:90% Yeah. 00:00:00.600 --> 00:00:03.540 align:middle line:84% And it's just to keep his limp from being seen, 00:00:03.540 --> 00:00:05.040 align:middle line:84% though everybody knew he had a limp. 00:00:05.040 --> 00:00:08.189 align:middle line:90% And he had a st- st- stutter. 00:00:08.189 --> 00:00:10.320 align:middle line:84% And so, of course, he gets to Mississippi. 00:00:10.320 --> 00:00:11.250 align:middle line:90% He's the only child. 00:00:11.250 --> 00:00:14.400 align:middle line:84% And he would have what would be considered money, 00:00:14.400 --> 00:00:16.950 align:middle line:84% as he's down there, maybe probably 00:00:16.950 --> 00:00:20.280 align:middle line:84% gave him $5, which, if you consider that his cousins got 00:00:20.280 --> 00:00:23.190 align:middle line:84% up at dawn, a little bit before, went out into the fields, 00:00:23.190 --> 00:00:25.470 align:middle line:84% and picked cotton all morning until it 00:00:25.470 --> 00:00:28.150 align:middle line:84% got too hot to be out there, and all they got was a quarter. 00:00:28.150 --> 00:00:29.530 align:middle line:90% Emmett was in good shape. 00:00:29.530 --> 00:00:30.570 align:middle line:90% So Emmett is bragging. 00:00:30.570 --> 00:00:31.737 align:middle line:90% And he's having a good time. 00:00:31.737 --> 00:00:33.253 align:middle line:84% He said, he's just a regular kid. 00:00:33.253 --> 00:00:34.420 align:middle line:90% And he's having a good time. 00:00:34.420 --> 00:00:35.760 align:middle line:84% They're teasing him about his stutter 00:00:35.760 --> 00:00:36.927 align:middle line:90% and they're laughing at him. 00:00:36.927 --> 00:00:38.895 align:middle line:84% And so Emmett is saying things like, I-- 00:00:38.895 --> 00:00:42.000 align:middle line:90% I-- I no fight people. 00:00:42.000 --> 00:00:42.930 align:middle line:90% And they're laughing. 00:00:42.930 --> 00:00:43.763 align:middle line:90% They say, you don't. 00:00:43.763 --> 00:00:45.660 align:middle line:90% He's I-- and he said I-- 00:00:45.660 --> 00:00:48.117 align:middle line:90% have-- a white girlfriend. 00:00:48.117 --> 00:00:49.200 align:middle line:90% And so, they were teasing. 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:50.670 align:middle line:84% They said, well, there's a girl in that store. 00:00:50.670 --> 00:00:52.650 align:middle line:84% Go in there and say something to her. 00:00:52.650 --> 00:00:54.750 align:middle line:84% Now her name is going to be Carolyn Bryant. 00:00:54.750 --> 00:00:56.820 align:middle line:84% And Carolyn is going to say Emmett grabbed her. 00:00:56.820 --> 00:00:58.290 align:middle line:90% But I grew up in segregation. 00:00:58.290 --> 00:01:00.340 align:middle line:84% Anybody in this aud-- my age knows 00:01:00.340 --> 00:01:02.490 align:middle line:84% that there's no way that could have happened. 00:01:02.490 --> 00:01:05.760 align:middle line:84% When you, as a Black person, go into the store, 00:01:05.760 --> 00:01:07.350 align:middle line:84% the first thing you do, is you go in, 00:01:07.350 --> 00:01:08.400 align:middle line:90% and you tell them what you want. 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:09.750 align:middle line:90% Me, I was into windmill cookies. 00:01:09.750 --> 00:01:11.700 align:middle line:84% So I'd say, like, two cents worth of windmill cookies. 00:01:11.700 --> 00:01:13.700 align:middle line:84% Not that stuff they do now, but when they really 00:01:13.700 --> 00:01:15.455 align:middle line:90% did ginger and butter, right? 00:01:15.455 --> 00:01:17.580 align:middle line:84% And then you have to put your money-- you tell them 00:01:17.580 --> 00:01:20.130 align:middle line:84% what you want, and you put your money on the counter, right? 00:01:20.130 --> 00:01:22.560 align:middle line:84% Emmett-- in this case, we know he was buying bubblegum-- 00:01:22.560 --> 00:01:24.727 align:middle line:84% so he's saying, what, a nickel's worth of bubblegum. 00:01:24.727 --> 00:01:26.910 align:middle line:84% And he puts a quarter there, whatever he had. 00:01:26.910 --> 00:01:29.760 align:middle line:84% Nothing's going to happen until he takes 00:01:29.760 --> 00:01:31.560 align:middle line:90% his hand off that counter. 00:01:31.560 --> 00:01:33.450 align:middle line:84% We've got a whole counter in between. 00:01:33.450 --> 00:01:35.760 align:middle line:84% Carolyn Bryant, the clerk, wherever-- 00:01:35.760 --> 00:01:38.190 align:middle line:84% is going to then pick up that money, 00:01:38.190 --> 00:01:42.480 align:middle line:84% generally make the change first, and then get you what you want. 00:01:42.480 --> 00:01:44.410 align:middle line:84% And she's going to put that there. 00:01:44.410 --> 00:01:45.935 align:middle line:84% And then she's going to withdraw. 00:01:45.935 --> 00:01:48.060 align:middle line:84% And she's going to actually step back a little bit. 00:01:48.060 --> 00:01:49.435 align:middle line:84% And then you're going to take it. 00:01:49.435 --> 00:01:53.340 align:middle line:84% So there's never any flesh touching that. 00:01:53.340 --> 00:01:55.350 align:middle line:84% We know that when it got to the-- 00:01:55.350 --> 00:01:58.350 align:middle line:84% get ready to walk out the door, that he said something 00:01:58.350 --> 00:02:01.170 align:middle line:84% like, bye, baby, or, see you, you 00:02:01.170 --> 00:02:04.560 align:middle line:84% know, something smart that it didn't amount to diddly, right? 00:02:04.560 --> 00:02:05.700 align:middle line:90% And they went on. 00:02:05.700 --> 00:02:07.140 align:middle line:90% Everybody was laughing. 00:02:07.140 --> 00:02:09.360 align:middle line:84% Well, her husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother, 00:02:09.360 --> 00:02:11.760 align:middle line:84% who are both crazy, had been down 00:02:11.760 --> 00:02:13.680 align:middle line:90% in Louisiana, hauling shrimp. 00:02:13.680 --> 00:02:15.330 align:middle line:90% They came back a day later. 00:02:15.330 --> 00:02:17.370 align:middle line:84% And we do know that it was somebody Black who 00:02:17.370 --> 00:02:19.830 align:middle line:84% said to them, what are you going to do about that boy that 00:02:19.830 --> 00:02:21.700 align:middle line:90% talked smart to your wife? 00:02:21.700 --> 00:02:23.310 align:middle line:90% And so now we have a situation. 00:02:23.310 --> 00:02:24.900 align:middle line:84% 2 o'clock in the morning, they're 00:02:24.900 --> 00:02:28.110 align:middle line:84% knocking on Moses Wright, who was Emmett's great uncle-- 00:02:28.110 --> 00:02:30.630 align:middle line:84% because he's Mamie's uncle, Emmett's great uncle. 00:02:30.630 --> 00:02:32.280 align:middle line:84% They're knocking on the door, 2 o'clock in the morning. 00:02:32.280 --> 00:02:34.655 align:middle line:84% And I'm sure I'll have to tell anybody in this room, when 00:02:34.655 --> 00:02:37.380 align:middle line:84% somebody knocks on your door at 2 o'clock in the morning, 00:02:37.380 --> 00:02:38.608 align:middle line:90% they mean you no good. 00:02:38.608 --> 00:02:39.900 align:middle line:90% They don't want to talk to you. 00:02:39.900 --> 00:02:40.980 align:middle line:84% They don't want to have an explain-- 00:02:40.980 --> 00:02:42.000 align:middle line:90% they want to kill you. 00:02:42.000 --> 00:02:43.918 align:middle line:84% And you have to be a fool not to know that. 00:02:43.918 --> 00:02:45.960 align:middle line:84% Moses knew, immediately, when he heard the knock, 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:47.050 align:middle line:90% that something was wrong. 00:02:47.050 --> 00:02:47.550 align:middle line:90% He kept-- 00:02:47.550 --> 00:02:48.300 align:middle line:90% [SINGLE DRUM BEAT] 00:02:48.300 --> 00:02:49.260 align:middle line:90% --trying to buy time. 00:02:49.260 --> 00:02:53.460 align:middle line:84% And finally, JW, who we know to be a crazy man, and JW said, 00:02:53.460 --> 00:02:56.220 align:middle line:84% Marlon said to him, you know, either you-- either we 00:02:56.220 --> 00:02:58.230 align:middle line:84% get the boy, or we're going to kill everybody. 00:02:58.230 --> 00:03:00.400 align:middle line:90% And I'm sure he knew that. 00:03:00.400 --> 00:03:01.485 align:middle line:90% And so Emmett had to go. 00:03:01.485 --> 00:03:02.860 align:middle line:84% And this is going to be very sad. 00:03:02.860 --> 00:03:04.840 align:middle line:84% I'm sure it played on Moses' heart, 00:03:04.840 --> 00:03:08.940 align:middle line:84% because Mamie had sent him down thinking he would be safe. 00:03:08.940 --> 00:03:11.760 align:middle line:84% Now we know-- and the reason that the case remains open-- 00:03:11.760 --> 00:03:15.990 align:middle line:84% is we know that they took him from the house to the truck. 00:03:15.990 --> 00:03:19.710 align:middle line:84% And they said to somebody in the truck, is this the boy? 00:03:19.710 --> 00:03:21.390 align:middle line:90% And somebody said, yes. 00:03:21.390 --> 00:03:23.580 align:middle line:84% The presumption was that it was Carolyn Bryant, 00:03:23.580 --> 00:03:24.538 align:middle line:90% but that we don't know. 00:03:24.538 --> 00:03:26.610 align:middle line:84% It could have been any number of people. 00:03:26.610 --> 00:03:29.370 align:middle line:84% But nonetheless, we know somebody else did that. 00:03:29.370 --> 00:03:32.100 align:middle line:84% They took Emmett to JW's barn and they beat him. 00:03:32.100 --> 00:03:33.677 align:middle line:84% They literally beat him all night. 00:03:33.677 --> 00:03:34.260 align:middle line:90% They beat him. 00:03:34.260 --> 00:03:36.510 align:middle line:84% They said his cries could be heard all over the Delta. 00:03:36.510 --> 00:03:39.420 align:middle line:84% They beat him to the point that he was unrecognizable. 00:03:39.420 --> 00:03:40.620 align:middle line:90% One eye was missing. 00:03:40.620 --> 00:03:43.050 align:middle line:90% One eye was hanging by a thread. 00:03:43.050 --> 00:03:47.070 align:middle line:84% They had-- it looked like that they had taken an ax 00:03:47.070 --> 00:03:48.870 align:middle line:90% and split his head in two. 00:03:48.870 --> 00:03:51.960 align:middle line:84% We know that there was a hole in his head, that was first 00:03:51.960 --> 00:03:54.930 align:middle line:84% assumed to be a bullet hole, but upon examination, 00:03:54.930 --> 00:03:57.800 align:middle line:84% we realized some kind of drill was done. 00:03:57.800 --> 00:03:59.050 align:middle line:90% We know that he was castrated. 00:03:59.050 --> 00:04:00.050 align:middle line:90% It was a terrible thing. 00:04:00.050 --> 00:04:01.770 align:middle line:84% We know that when that frenzy stopped-- 00:04:01.770 --> 00:04:03.450 align:middle line:90% because it was a frenzy-- 00:04:03.450 --> 00:04:09.040 align:middle line:84% that even JW and Roy knew this should not be seen. 00:04:09.040 --> 00:04:11.395 align:middle line:84% This-- we have gone beyond anything 00:04:11.395 --> 00:04:12.520 align:middle line:90% that's going to make sense. 00:04:12.520 --> 00:04:15.870 align:middle line:84% So they sent a man named Too Tight Jones out 00:04:15.870 --> 00:04:19.320 align:middle line:84% to get a gin fan, weighed 50 pounds. 00:04:19.320 --> 00:04:19.920 align:middle line:90% He got it. 00:04:19.920 --> 00:04:23.505 align:middle line:84% And they took barbed wire, and they wrapped it around Emmett-- 00:04:23.505 --> 00:04:25.380 align:middle line:84% wrapped around his neck-- and they wrapped it 00:04:25.380 --> 00:04:26.220 align:middle line:90% around the gin fan. 00:04:26.220 --> 00:04:27.960 align:middle line:84% They dropped it in the Tallahatchie, 00:04:27.960 --> 00:04:30.732 align:middle line:84% with the presumption being that it wouldn't come up. 00:04:30.732 --> 00:04:32.190 align:middle line:84% And if there's one thing, for those 00:04:32.190 --> 00:04:33.360 align:middle line:84% of us who would be Christian, there's 00:04:33.360 --> 00:04:34.900 align:middle line:90% one thing we know about Jesus. 00:04:34.900 --> 00:04:37.770 align:middle line:84% He said, I have to die, but I don't have to stay dead. 00:04:37.770 --> 00:04:40.600 align:middle line:84% And so three days later, he comes back up. 00:04:40.600 --> 00:04:42.697 align:middle line:84% We have Emmett's body coming up, which 00:04:42.697 --> 00:04:45.030 align:middle line:84% nobody thought that body was going to ever come back up. 00:04:45.030 --> 00:04:47.525 align:middle line:84% By then, of course, Emmett's mother is in Mississippi. 00:04:47.525 --> 00:04:48.900 align:middle line:84% So the Sheriff was saying to her, 00:04:48.900 --> 00:04:51.930 align:middle line:84% as they discovered the body, you know, what are you doing here? 00:04:51.930 --> 00:04:53.580 align:middle line:90% She says, it's my son. 00:04:53.580 --> 00:04:55.200 align:middle line:84% He said, how do we know it's your son? 00:04:55.200 --> 00:04:56.617 align:middle line:84% Well, first of all, he had a ring. 00:04:56.617 --> 00:04:59.100 align:middle line:84% But not first of all, he had a ring on his finger-- 00:04:59.100 --> 00:05:00.870 align:middle line:84% on his baby finger-- said LT, which 00:05:00.870 --> 00:05:02.520 align:middle line:90% stood for his dad, Louis Till. 00:05:02.520 --> 00:05:04.048 align:middle line:90% But she didn't need that. 00:05:04.048 --> 00:05:06.090 align:middle line:84% Any mother in this room-- you don't need anything 00:05:06.090 --> 00:05:07.800 align:middle line:90% to tell you your son. 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:09.090 align:middle line:90% She knew that was her son. 00:05:09.090 --> 00:05:11.070 align:middle line:84% Sheriff said, we don't even know if he's Black. 00:05:11.070 --> 00:05:14.790 align:middle line:84% But of course, the Sheriff was not only a fool, but a liar. 00:05:14.790 --> 00:05:15.798 align:middle line:90% He knew he was Black. 00:05:15.798 --> 00:05:17.340 align:middle line:84% And we know that because she sent him 00:05:17.340 --> 00:05:19.560 align:middle line:84% to Century funeral home, which was the Black funeral home. 00:05:19.560 --> 00:05:21.810 align:middle line:84% If there had been any idea that that was a white body, 00:05:21.810 --> 00:05:23.460 align:middle line:84% would have never gone over there. 00:05:23.460 --> 00:05:25.530 align:middle line:84% Now the greatest man, I think, in America, 00:05:25.530 --> 00:05:28.170 align:middle line:84% that are unheralded, are the Pullman porters. 00:05:28.170 --> 00:05:30.360 align:middle line:84% And it was the Pullman porters-- they are great men. 00:05:30.360 --> 00:05:32.070 align:middle line:84% And if ever you're looking for something to study, 00:05:32.070 --> 00:05:34.290 align:middle line:84% the Pullman porters are the people we should study. 00:05:34.290 --> 00:05:36.390 align:middle line:84% But the Pullman porters went to Mrs.-- 00:05:36.390 --> 00:05:37.948 align:middle line:84% she's Mrs. Bradley, at this point. 00:05:37.948 --> 00:05:39.240 align:middle line:90% And they said, how can we help? 00:05:39.240 --> 00:05:40.560 align:middle line:90% She said, I want him at home. 00:05:40.560 --> 00:05:42.930 align:middle line:84% Century Funeral Home, for those of you is in Greenville. 00:05:42.930 --> 00:05:45.097 align:middle line:84% For those of you down in Mississippi, you know that. 00:05:45.097 --> 00:05:47.460 align:middle line:84% And it's about 1,000 yards from the railroad tracks. 00:05:47.460 --> 00:05:49.800 align:middle line:84% When the northbound train came, in the Pullman 00:05:49.800 --> 00:05:52.680 align:middle line:84% porters stopped the train, and they got the body, 00:05:52.680 --> 00:05:53.472 align:middle line:90% and they put it on. 00:05:53.472 --> 00:05:55.722 align:middle line:84% Now, of course, he's been in the water for three days. 00:05:55.722 --> 00:05:57.600 align:middle line:84% He's waterlogged and he's badly beaten. 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:00.690 align:middle line:84% So you know that it was not a pleasant thing to have around. 00:06:00.690 --> 00:06:01.500 align:middle line:90% It smelled. 00:06:01.500 --> 00:06:02.970 align:middle line:84% But they didn't put him in baggage, 00:06:02.970 --> 00:06:05.580 align:middle line:84% because they knew if they put that body-- 00:06:05.580 --> 00:06:07.458 align:middle line:84% that casket-- in baggage, all of them 00:06:07.458 --> 00:06:09.000 align:middle line:84% would get killed, because Mississippi 00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:10.380 align:middle line:84% was determined that this would be 00:06:10.380 --> 00:06:11.727 align:middle line:90% a crime that nobody would see. 00:06:11.727 --> 00:06:13.560 align:middle line:84% They wanted to bury it there in Mississippi. 00:06:13.560 --> 00:06:16.440 align:middle line:84% So they put it in their personal effects and they watched over. 00:06:16.440 --> 00:06:18.510 align:middle line:84% And they got him to Chicago, where, 00:06:18.510 --> 00:06:21.030 align:middle line:84% until the March on Washington, the biggest civil rights 00:06:21.030 --> 00:06:22.815 align:middle line:84% demonstration in America was the viewing 00:06:22.815 --> 00:06:23.940 align:middle line:90% of the body of Emmett Till. 00:06:23.940 --> 00:06:25.140 align:middle line:90% His mother did a good thing. 00:06:25.140 --> 00:06:27.090 align:middle line:90% She opened that casket. 00:06:27.090 --> 00:06:28.740 align:middle line:84% And that had to be extremely difficult. 00:06:28.740 --> 00:06:30.823 align:middle line:84% But she opened the casket, and she said the words, 00:06:30.823 --> 00:06:34.870 align:middle line:84% I want the world to see what they did to my son. 00:06:34.870 --> 00:06:38.190 align:middle line:84% And I think everybody on Earth should be proud of Mamie. 00:06:38.190 --> 00:06:40.890 align:middle line:84% But the Sheriff said, she ought to be ashamed of herself. 00:06:40.890 --> 00:06:41.910 align:middle line:90% Sheriff was a fool. 00:06:41.910 --> 00:06:44.820 align:middle line:84% Sheriff said, she ought to be ashamed of showing this body. 00:06:44.820 --> 00:06:47.180 align:middle line:90% But it wasn't Mamie's shame. 00:06:47.180 --> 00:06:49.380 align:middle line:84% That's like, you know, your husband's beating you, 00:06:49.380 --> 00:06:51.338 align:middle line:84% and he's telling you ought to be ashamed to let 00:06:51.338 --> 00:06:52.410 align:middle line:90% your girlfriends see you. 00:06:52.410 --> 00:06:53.730 align:middle line:90% It's not your shame. 00:06:53.730 --> 00:06:55.020 align:middle line:90% He's the fool beating you. 00:06:55.020 --> 00:06:56.580 align:middle line:90% You need to give it back to him. 00:06:56.580 --> 00:06:58.710 align:middle line:84% Somebody in this room has been raped. 00:06:58.710 --> 00:07:00.753 align:middle line:84% It's not your shame that some fool raped you. 00:07:00.753 --> 00:07:02.670 align:middle line:84% You have to give it back to the people, right? 00:07:02.670 --> 00:07:05.490 align:middle line:84% Why do you carry the shame for somebody else's actions? 00:07:05.490 --> 00:07:07.685 align:middle line:84% And Mamie Till refused to carry the shame. 00:07:07.685 --> 00:07:09.810 align:middle line:84% And she made-- she put the shame where it belonged, 00:07:09.810 --> 00:07:12.180 align:middle line:84% on the state of Mississippi, United States of America. 00:07:12.180 --> 00:07:13.440 align:middle line:90% And the world saw that. 00:07:13.440 --> 00:07:14.610 align:middle line:90% And the world reacted. 00:07:14.610 --> 00:07:17.820 align:middle line:84% And Rosa Parks is going to react in a very good way. 00:07:17.820 --> 00:07:20.020 align:middle line:84% We have a death in the end of August. 00:07:20.020 --> 00:07:21.960 align:middle line:90% We have a trial in September. 00:07:21.960 --> 00:07:24.260 align:middle line:90% We have them found not guilty. 00:07:24.260 --> 00:07:26.010 align:middle line:84% The defense summed up the trial by saying, 00:07:26.010 --> 00:07:28.800 align:middle line:84% I know every Anglo-Saxon drop of blood in your body 00:07:28.800 --> 00:07:30.240 align:middle line:90% will let you free these men. 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:31.548 align:middle line:90% And they did, not guilty. 00:07:31.548 --> 00:07:33.090 align:middle line:84% But, of course, now we have something 00:07:33.090 --> 00:07:34.270 align:middle line:90% called double jeopardy. 00:07:34.270 --> 00:07:35.670 align:middle line:84% And so they can't be tried again. 00:07:35.670 --> 00:07:38.730 align:middle line:84% They sell their story to William Bradford Huie at Look Magazine. 00:07:38.730 --> 00:07:39.480 align:middle line:90% And it's in there. 00:07:39.480 --> 00:07:41.610 align:middle line:84% Yes, we killed him and this is why. 00:07:41.610 --> 00:07:43.320 align:middle line:90% This is the end of September. 00:07:43.320 --> 00:07:45.152 align:middle line:84% Now we've got 31 days in October, 00:07:45.152 --> 00:07:47.610 align:middle line:84% we've got 30 days in November, we have the 1st of December. 00:07:47.610 --> 00:07:51.030 align:middle line:84% 62 days from that action, Rosa Parks 00:07:51.030 --> 00:07:53.500 align:middle line:84% is going to be sitting on the bus. 00:07:53.500 --> 00:07:54.000 align:middle line:90%