Go to the PBS American Experience website about the Emmett Till event: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/eyesontheprize/story/01_till.html
Read the "Intro" and "Press" sections (the tabs at the bottom of the page) to get a little background on the case and read excerpts from letters to the editor about the incident.
PROMPT: You have just read about Emmett Till in the paper. What is your reaction to these photos and this crime especially given the fact that you are interested in social justice and you feel an urge to do something about this? What direction do you think this relatively small civil rights movement should take?
i was shocked when i read about the crime. i was shocked because i didn't think it was necessary to brutely beat a man to death just because he whistled at a white women. i felt an urge to do something about this because its un human. I think this should go in a positive direction.
ReplyDeleteJon aka GREENLEAF
This article made me really angry! All the boy did was whistle at a woman thats no reason to kill him. The woman sould feel good because it is techincally a compliment. It's also messed up that the two men who killed him were never convicted! How dumb is the jury! I feel bad for the boy and his mom.
ReplyDeleteI was horrified. These two white men had no warrant to kill the boy or search his house or do anything else. Wasn't it written down in the 4th Amendment on Search and Seizure that "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized". I feel that something should be done to the killers (I don't know what but I know that it has to be something). Maybe the killers could be put in jail or killed. I think that they should make blacks equal to all other people because right now 'separate isn't equal'!
ReplyDeleteWhen I read this, I felt like what these white people did, was beyond gruesome... they killed an innocent boy who didn't mean to whistle at the lady. They would have to understand that where he came from, they didn't have laws as bad as the ones in Missippi. They should have gotten his side of the story, they shouldn't have killed him.
ReplyDeleteI think that people should have respected African Americans more.
I was shocked after reading this article. There is no right for one man to beat another to death just because he wistled at a girl. After reading this ryou can see how corrupt and immoral the south was with there Jim Crow Laws at this time.
ReplyDeleteThis case mad me very upset. Because i believe that there is never a 'good excuse' to kill any human beign. And especially fro whistling at a woman. Also, the booy was only 14 and its an act of cawards for TWO GROWN men to kill a boy. It is ridiculous on how they felt it was 'justice' but what is even more upseting is the way the jury, whose job is to provide justice, didnt do Emmett any.
ReplyDeleteEmmett had no idea what he was doing. He was only 14 and did not know it was that wrong. What the whites did to him was not right. An innocent boy that meant no harm was murdered. His mother did the right thing for trying to get people to understand why it was wrong. He did not know about the laws and no he can never say he is sorry and did not know.
ReplyDeletei think what happenned to emmett till was unecessary because the police took it overboard. they took a man's life just because he whistled to a white woman. i believe that he was not only beaten up because of that one reason. i think the cops knew what they were doing and they did it intentionally because he was black
ReplyDeleteI was shocked to hear the beating of a black man just because he interacted with a white women there is no excuse!No no excuse at all.
ReplyDeleteI feel bad about this poor man that was beating for whistling a woman. I can believe that people took a brutal action against him.
ReplyDeleteI also couldn't believe that cops did that.