Lynching was a form of violent public execution carried out in the United States, most often against African Americans, between the 1880s and 1960s. Lynchings were often carried out without due process by mobs to punish alleged crimes or intimidate and control populations. The brutal lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman shocked the nation and galvanized the civil rights movement. Though two white men were tried for Till's murder, an all-white jury acquitted them, highlighting the injustice faced by African Americans in the Jim Crow South. The brutal killing came to symbolize the systemic racism and violence endured by Black people in the era of segregation.

1. LYNCHING
Kate, Rob, Kieran

2. DEFINITION:
Lynching is an execution carried out by a mob, often by
hanging, but also by burning at the stake or shooting.
Lynching is used in order to punish an alleged
transgressor, or to intimidate, control, or otherwise
manipulate a population of people.

3. DATES:
Lynching's took place most frequently in the Southern
United States starting from 1890 to the 1920s.
After the Civil War, lynching became particularly
associated with the South, and with the first Ku Klux
Klan which was founded in 1866.
The anti-lynching campaign sought to
fight lynching through education
or legal action.

4. FACTS:
● At the turn of the 20th century, at least 100 lynching‘s were being reported
each year. In 1892, a record of 230 were lynched: 160 of them were black.
● Out of the 4743 people who were lynched, only 1297 of them were white.
Many of the whites were lynched for helping the black, being anti-lynching or
even for domestic crimes.
● Lynching took place most frequently in the Southern United States.
● Lynching took place between 1882 and 1968.
● Most of the lynching was done
between 1882 and 1920.
Emmett Till (Before & after his murder)

5. STRANGE FRUIT:
A song that refers to lynching is the Billie Holiday song
‘Strange Fruit’ written by Abel Meeropol in 1939.
“Southern trees bear strange fruit, blood on the leaves and blood at the roots. Black
bodies swinging in the southern breeze, strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant south, the bulging eyes and the twisted mouth. Scent of
magnolias, sweet and fresh. Then the sudden smell of burning flesh. Here is fruit for the
crows to pluck, for the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, for the sun to rot, for the
trees to drop, here is a strange and bitter crop.”
The disturbing lyrics were rejected by
Holiday's label, but she recorded it
independently; the song became an
anthem for the anti-lynching movement
which joined the American civil rights
movement.

6. The lynching of Emmett Till
•Emmett Till (July 25, 1941 – August
28, 1955) was an African-American
boy who was murdered in Mississippi
at the age of 14 after reportedly
flirting with a white women.
•Till was from Chicago, Illinois, visiting
his relatives in the Mississippi Delta
area when he spoke to 21 year old
Carloyn Bryant.
•Several nights later Carolyn Bryant’s
husband Roy and his half-brother J.W.
Milam arrived at Till’s great-uncle’s
house and took Till.

7. The encounter between Carolyn Bryant and Emmett Till
•After skipping church with his cousin, Emmett
and some local boys went to Bryant’s Grocery to
buy candy, the boys he was with had been
picking cotton all day. Emmett was bragging
that he had a white girlfriend back home so the
boys dared him to speak to Carolyn.
•There are several different versions describing
what happened, he may have wolf-whistled at
Carolyn. However a newspaper article said that
Till whistled to alleviate his stuttering.
•Carolyn Bryant claimed that Till had grabbed
her waist and asked her for a date. Whatever the
event, Bryant ran to her car to get her pistol, a
man told the boys to quickly leave after hearing
what happened. Till quickly told his relatives
that he wanted to return to Chicago. Carolyn's
husband Roy Bryant was on a trip hauling
shrimp to Texas and did not return until August
27th.

8. The Murder
•When Roy Bryant was told of what had happened, he began by
aggressively questioned young black men who entered the store.
•Later that evening Bryant along with a black man called J. W.
Washington approached a young black man and took him to be
identified by a grocery worker who saw the event, the boy knew of
Till and said he was from Chicago.
•Between 2:00 am and 3:30 am on Sunday, August 28, 1955, Bryant
and his half brother John Milam went to a house and found Till.
They put him in the back of a pick-up truck and drove to a barn in
Drew.

9. • He was beaten in Drew and then taken
to Milam’s shed, people walking past
Milam’s shed said they could hear
somebody being beaten. Till was
eventually shot and his body dumped in
the Tallahatchie River.
• In Look magazine in 1956, Bryant and
Milam stated they had no intention of
killing Till, they just wanted to beat him
and throw him into the river to frighten
him, but Till called them bastards and
this encouraged them to shoot him.
• His body was found three days later by
boys fishing, his face was badly
damaged, he had been shot above the
ear, an eye was dislodged, and his neck
had been weighted and tied with barbed
wire.

10. Reaction
•Till’s murder raised issues about segregation, law enforcement,
relations between the North and South, the social status quo in
Mississippi, the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement
of Coloured People), White Citizens’ Council and the Cold War.
•Many Mississippi newspapers reported the death, one said "Now
is the time for every citizen who loves the state of Mississippi to
'Stand up and be counted' before hoodlum white trash brings us to
destruction.”, the article said it wasn’t negroes who were not the
downfall of Mississippi but the whites, like the violent radicals in
the White Citizens’ Councils.
•Mississippi’s governor, Hugh L. White promised a "vigorous
prosecution". Leflore County Deputy Sheriff John Cothran stated,
"The white people around here feel pretty mad about the way that
poor little boy was treated, and they won't stand for this.“. The
White Citizens’ council responded by saying racial segregation
policies were in force for blacks’ safety.

11. • News of the death eventually spread to Chicago, as soon as this
happened the attitude of Mississippi journalists changed
dramatically, they started rumours of blacks and whites from
the North coming to the South to protest. The NAACP executive
Roy Wilkins said the murder was a lynching and accused Bryant
and Milam that they carried out the murder to maintain white
supremacy in Mississippi. After Wilkin’s comments, white
opinions began to shift in Mississippi and they started to reject
the opinions of the North, according to the former sheriff, the
people of Tallahatchie had an independence and they do “what
they damn well please”.
• The current sheriff Clarence Strider, who was initially positive
about the case against Bryant, started to question whether the
body was actually Till’s, he even began to speculate the body
had been planted by the NAACP, he later said "The last thing I
wanted to do was to defend those peckerwoods. But I just had
no choice about it.”

12. Influence on Civil Rights
•Till’s case became a symbol of black
justice in Southern America. The Chicago
Defender in 1955 prompted their readers
to react to the case by voting in large
numbers.
•The NAACP asked Mamie Till Bradley to
tour the country relating the events of
her son’s death to the trial of his
murderers, it was the NAACP’s most
successful tour ever.
•In Montgomery, Rosa Parks refused to
give up her seat to a white bus rider,
which caused the boycott of the public
bus system. Parks later said that ‘She
thought of Emmett Till and I just couldn't
go back.”

13. John Milam – Look Magazine, 1956
‘Well, what else could we do? He was hopeless. I'm no bully; I
never hurt a nigger in my life. I like niggers—in their place—I
know how to work 'em. But I just decided it was time a few
people got put on notice. As long as I live and can do anything
about it, niggers are gonna stay in their place. Niggers ain't
gonna vote where I live. If they did, they'd control the
government. They ain't gonna go to school with my kids. And
when a nigger gets close to mentioning sex with a white
woman, he's tired o' livin'. I'm likely to kill him. Me and my
folks fought for this country, and we got some rights. I stood
there in that shed and listened to that nigger throw that
poison at me, and I just made up my mind. 'Chicago boy,' I said,
'I'm tired of 'em sending your kind down here to stir up
trouble. Goddam you, I'm going to make an example of you—
just so everybody can know how me and my folks stand.'