By: Cheryl Smith
Emmett Louis Till was born on July 25, 1941 in Chicago, IL. The only child of Mamie and Louis TIll, he was brutally murdered on August 28, 1955.
He should be celebrating his birthday, but instead, he, like so many others, was lynched because of the color of his skin.
Emmett’s mother, like so many other mothers who had moved “up north,” sent her son “down south” to visit with relatives.
Of course, he needed to know his relatives!
When I was growing up in Newark, New Jersey, my older brother and I, and then eventually my younger sister, traveled to Florida and Georgia to connect with our kinfolks.
We returned home alive with maybe a few reminders of encounters with a switch.
Sadly, Emmett didn’t return to Chicago alive. Instead, the world got to see the results of the savage behavior of Carolyn Bryant, her husband, Roy Bryant, and brother-in-law, J.W. Milam.
Just another history lesson. But have we learned?
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