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Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till is born to Louis and Mamie Till
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Emmett Till was stricken with polio, he recovered with a slight stutter
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Emmett Till's father dies in World War II
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Emmett's mother gives him a ring with his father's initials before he leaves to Mississippi
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Emmett goes to Mississippi to Money Mississippi to stay with his great uncle Moses Wright, and cousin, Wheeler Parker
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Bryant's Grocery, is owned by a white couple, Roy and Carolyn Bryant, who sells supplies and candy to a primarily black clientele of share croppers and their children
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Emmett bragged to friends and cousin that his girlfriend back home was white. Emmett’s African American companions, disbelieving him, dared Emmett to ask the white woman sitting behind the store counter for a date. His friends and cousin dared him to ask the white women behind the counter for a date. He went in, bought some candy, and on the way out was heard saying, “Bye, baby” to the woman.
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At about 2:30 AM, Roy Bryant, Carolyn's husband and his half brother J.W Milam kidnap Emmett from Moses Wright's home. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milan beat Emmett, took him to the edge of the Tallahatchie River, shot him in the head, fastening a large metal fan used for ginning cotton to his neck with barbed wire, and pushing the body into the river.
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J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant are arrested on kidnapping charges in LeFlore County in connection with Till's disappearance. They are jailed in Greenwood, Mississippi and held without bond.
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Three days later, Emmett Till's decomposed corpse is pulled from Mississippi's Tallahatchie River. Moses Wright identifies the body from a ring with the initials L.T.
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Mississippi Governor Hugh White orders local officials to "fully prosecute" Milam and Bryant
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In Chicago, Mamie Till arrives at the Illinois Central Terminal to receive Emmett's casket. She is surrounded by family and photographers who snap her photo collapsing in grief at the sight of the casket. The body is taken to the A. A. Rayner & Sons Funeral Home. The Jackson Daily News decries the "brutal, senseless crime" but complains that the NAACP is working "to arouse hatred and fear" by calling Till's murder a lynching.
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Emmett Till's body is taken to Chicago's Roberts Temple Church of God for viewing and funeral services. Emmett's mother decides to have an open casket funeral.
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Emmett Till is buried at Burr Oak Cemetery. The same day, a grand jury in Mississippi indicts Milam and Bryant for the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. They both plead innocent. They will be held in jail until the start of the trial.
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The kidnapping and murder trial of J. W. Milam and Roy Bryant opens in Sumner, Mississippi, the county seat of Tallahatchie County. Jury selection begins and, with blacks and white women banned from serving, an all-white, 12-man jury made up of nine farmers, two carpenters and one insurance agent is selected.
Milam and Bryant are not guilty of murdering Emmett Till after the jury deliberates only 67 minutes. -
Milam and Bryant are released on bond. Kidnapping charges are pending.
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The two men, Bryant and Milam go free.
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Look magazine publishes an article written by Alabama journalist William Bradford Huie, entitled The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi. Huie has offered Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam $4,000 to tell how they killed Emmett Till. Milam speaks for the record.
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William Bradford Huie writes another article for Look magazine, "What's Happened to the Emmett Till Killers?" Huie writes that "Milam does not regret the killing, though it has brought him nothing but trouble." Blacks have stopped frequenting stores owned by the Milam and Bryant families and put them out of business. Bryant takes up welding for income, and both men are ostracized by the white community.
