Emmit till y birmigham alabama 1970

Emmett Till abduction and murder in Mississippi in August 1955, and the subsequent acquittal of his killers the following month, became not only a national story, but also put Southern racism intothe international spotlight. These events became a major force in the advancement of the Civil Rights Movement. Some would even say they were the catalyst.

Emmett Louis "Bobo" Till (July 25, 1941 –August 28, 1955) was an African American boy from Chicago, Illinois, who was murdered at the age of 14 in Money, Mississippi, a small town in the state's Delta region, after reportedly whistling at awhite woman, Carolyn Bryant, at a small grocery store where Emmett and his cousins had bought some candy. The murder of Emmett Till was noted as one of theleading events that motivated the American Civil Rights Movement. The main suspects, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were acquitted by a jury of twelve white men, but later admitted they were responsiblefor the beating, torture, and murder of the black fourteen-year old and wanted to "make an example out of him." Till's mother insisted on a public funeral service, with an open casket with the intentof showing the world the brutality of the killing.

The Birmingham campaign was a strategic movement organized by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to bring attention to theunequal treatment black Americans endured in Birmingham, Alabama. The campaign ran during the spring of 1963, culminating in widely publicized confrontations between black youth and white civic authorities,that eventually pressured the municipal government to change the city's discrimination laws. Organizers, led by Martin Luther King, Jr. used nonviolent direct action tactics to defy laws theyconsidered unfair. King summarized the philosophy of the Birmingham campaign when he said, "The purpose of ... direct action is to create a situation so crisis-packed that it will inevitably open the door...