A modern tragedy, this story has had a great impact on race relations in America. Emmett Till's kidnapping and murder, a grotesque crime in a Southern backwater that became the catalyst for the civil rights movement, is explained in this dramatic narrative by the cousin who was present every step of the way. Simeon Wright saw and heard his cousin Emmett whistle at Caroline Bryant at a grocery store and slept in the same bed with him when her husband...

In August 1955, Emmett Till was a fourteen-year-old African American teenager on vacation. He had traveled to visit relatives in rural Mississippi. He would return home to Chicago to be buried. Emmett Till was murdered by two white men, making him a victim of racial violence that galvanized the unfolding civil rights movement. This account details the circumstances of his abduction, murder, and funeral, plus the subsequent trial. Readers will learn...