United States: rebound in the Emett Till case, a racist murder dating from 1955

Emmett Till's case is one of the starting points of the civil rights movement in the United States, still until today, as here with a demonstration "Black Lives Matter" near the White House.

AFP/Olivier Douliery

Text by: RFI Follow

2 mins

This is a new element in a case that changed the face of America and which still haunts it: the racist murder of Emmett Till, a black teenager from Chicago who came to visit his family in Mississippi in 1955.

Decades later, his family has found a document and is demanding justice.

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With our correspondent in Washington

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It takes place at the end of June 2022, in the basement of a court in Mississippi, in the southern United States.

Cousins ​​of Emmett Till do not believe their eyes: in a box covered with dust and dead insects, they have just found an arrest warrant for kidnapping in the name of "Madame Roy Bryant".

That is, the wife of one of the white men who was tried and acquitted for the murder by an all-white jury, before later acknowledging him in the press.

Carolyn Donham Bryant, who had accused the teenager of having made inappropriate comments against her, was never arrested or worried.

She admitted a few years ago that her accusations were unfounded, but unlike the two men, she is still alive.

She is over 80 and lives in North Carolina.

Emett Till, symbol of civil rights

Lawyers are studying the case to find out if this forgotten warrant can be used decades later to reopen the case.

Emmett Till's mother demanded that her son's coffin be opened, and photos of the teenager's horribly disfigured face shocked America and the world.

It is one of the starting points of

, still until today.

A few months ago, after multiple attempts in Congress, a law prohibiting lynching at the federal level was finally able to be enacted and it bears the name of Emmett Till.

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• United States

• Racism

• Justice