Emmet Till and Autherine Lucy

• What year was Emmet Till?

  August 1955
• What was the cause of Emmet Till?

  • 14 year old boy from Chicago
  • sent to visit his uncle in Mississippi
  • embarrassed a white woman when dared to wolf whistle
  • she claimed he grabbed her and said 'unprintable' words
  • all actually due to race
• What happened to Emmet Till?

  • the woman's husband returned and abducted, beat, gouged eyes out, shot in head and thrown in river Tallahatchie River with cotton fan round neck
  • corpse so disfigured could only identify by ring on his finger
• What was the outcome of Emmet Till?

  • mother insisted on open casket - black press published picture of emaciated body (seen around the world)
  • murderers even with lots of evidence acquitted not guilty - 67 min trial and said "if we hadn't stopped to drink pop, it wouldn't have taken that long"
  • defence lawyer and congressman brother - leading democrats in county
• When was Autherine Lucy?

  1955 - 1956
• What were the causes of Autherine Lucy?

  NAACP won court case Lucy vs Adams - securing black student Lucy's place at Uni of Alabama (first black student to atend)
• What happened to Autherine Lucy?

  Uni of Alabama expelled her and later claimed that she lied when she claimed she was expelled due to race
• What were the outcomes of Lucy?

  remained expelled from Uni of Alabama
• What was Ike's response to Emmet Till?

  made no comment
• What was Ike's response to Lucy?

  made no comment and refused to intervene