Abstract

Using personal interviews conducted with jurors, law enforcement officials, lawyers, and other people involved with the trial of Emmett Till, this essay argues that a guilty verdict in the case was a foregone conclusion. Despite evidence that the body discovered in the Tallahatchie River was in fact that of Emmett Till, local Mississippians rallied around Roy Bryant and J .W. Milam. In addition, personal interviews suggest that two black men were purposefully hidden in a local Charleston, Mississippi, jail in order to limit the prosecution's case.

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