Emmett Louis Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was brutally lynched in Mississippi in 1955, in a horrific act of racial violence. Till, originally from Chicago, had been visiting family in Money, Mississippi when he was accused of whistling at a white woman named Carolyn Bryant in a local grocery store.

Several days later, Bryant's husband Roy and his half-brother J.W. Milam abducted Till from his great-uncle's home, beat him severely, shot him in the head, and then disposed of his body in the Tallahatchie River, with a cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire.

Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, made the bold decision to have an open-casket funeral for her son so that the world could see the brutality of his murder. The images of Till's mutilated body sparked outrage and galvanized the Civil Rights Movement. The two men responsible for his murder were acquitted by an all-white jury, but later admitted to the killing in an interview with Look magazine.

Emmett Till's murder became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, highlighting the violence and injustice faced by African Americans in the segregated South. His death continues to be a powerful symbol of the struggle for racial equality and justice in America.