This Day in History: , Emmett Till Is Murdered.<br />August 28, 1955.<br />The 14-year-old Chicagoan was murdered while visiting family in Money, MS.<br />Unprepared for the level of racism in Mississippi, <br />Till had openly flirted with a white woman,<br />Carolyn Bryant Donham, on a dare from his friends.<br />Four days later, the woman's <br />husband, Roy, and her brother, <br />J.W. Milam, drove to where Emmett was <br />staying and kidnapped him from his family.<br />Emmett was beaten, and his eyes <br />were gouged out. He was shot in the head, <br />chained to a cotton gin fan and <br />then thrown into the Tallahatchie River.<br />Though he had been violated beyond recognition, when his body was found, Till's mother demanded he was displayed in an open casket for his funeral.<br />Despite outrage sparked by the photo of Emmett in his coffin, it took an all-white jury less than an hour to acquit the two men of his murder.
