77). Although it was not against the law for blacks to vote in the south, blacks were just not able to cross the barriers that the white man put in his way. Though blacks constituted 63 % of the slightly more than 30,000 residents of Tallahatchie County, it occasioned no surprise that none was selected to serve on the jury. Eligibility to perform that function depended upon suffrage, and no blacks were registered to vote in the county (Whitfield, pg. 35). So when the southern jury was packed with all white males, it was no surprise that the two men were acquitted. Another reason why Bryant and Millam were exonerated from their crimes was the fact that many people, including the jury, did not believe that the body that was found in the river was actually Till. Due to the fact that the body was badly bludgeoned and swelled, an identification of the body could not be done. The identification was made from the ring on Till's finger, but many believed that the body was actually someone else, and that Till was still alive. The defense, backed by Sheriff Strider, testified that the NAACP had plotted Till's killing. Furthermore, C. Sidney Carlton, an attorney for the defense laid any speculation of guilt to rest. Carlton acknowledged that it was entirely too outrageous that Bryant and Millam had kidnaped Till and killed him. Carlton warned the jurors in his summation that their forefathers would turn over in their graves if a guilty verdict were to be rendered (Whitfield, pg. 42). It took the all white male jury only one hour and seven minutes to render a verdict of not guilty in the murder of Emmett Till.
Although the Till case was a hugely publicized event in 1955, and many people, especially people from the north, believed that the Till case had been unjust, the federal officials in Washington were not going to stand up and speak their opinions and try to make a change. President Eisenhower, who was in office when Brown vs.
The civil rights struggle of the 1950's and 1960's created certain incidents, organizations and people such as Emitt Till, Rosa Parks, Little Rock Nine, NAACP, Brown vs. ... The first major character of the civil rights movement is Emitt Till. ... In Chicago different marches occurred for the justice of Emmitt Till and the rest of the African American community. ...
