Emmett Till was a young African American boy who was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955, at the age of 14. Till, from Chicago, was visiting family in the segregated South when he was accused of whistling at a white woman in a grocery store. This false accusation led to him being kidnapped, severely beaten, and ultimately killed by two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam.

Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on having an open casket funeral to show the world the brutality her son had suffered. The shocking images of Emmett Till's mutilated body sparked outrage and became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. The men responsible for Till's murder were acquitted by an all-white jury, but later admitted to the crime in a magazine interview.

The case of Emmett Till remains a powerful symbol of racial injustice and the need for civil rights and justice for all. His death helped to galvanize the Civil Rights Movement and continues to be remembered as a tragic example of the violence and racism faced by Black Americans in the Jim Crow era.