Cousin of Emmett Till details terrifying moment he was kidnapped before being brutally murdered and dumped in a river
Gerrard Kaonga
Featured Image Credit: Bettmann Archives via Getty Images
The cousin of Emmett Till has given details about the racist attack that resulted in the brutal murder of the teenager.
The murder of Emmett Till became central to the civil rights movement way back in 1955.
Till was only 14-years-old at the time and was wrongly accused of whistling at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, when he and his family visited the Bryant store while visiting relatives in Mississippi.
There has been much debate about the extent and length to which Donham lied about the incident.
Advert
He was then later kidnapped from his home, lynched and his body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River.
The accusation by Donham that Till had offended her resulted in her brother-in-law, JW Milam, and her husband, Roy Bryant, enacting revenge.
Bryant and Milam were charged with Till's murder, but they were acquitted by an all-white-male jury. Till’s murder and the acquittal of the men drew national attention at the time and to this day remain key incidents displaying the cruelty of the Jim Crow South and ultimately the civil rights movement.
The now 86-year-old Wheeler Parker, Cousin of Till, was 16 at the time and was in the house when Till was abducted.
He recalled the incident while at the 70th anniversary commemoration of Emmett Till at Mississippi Valley State University on August 29.
Speaking to the Mirror US, he said the angry white men broke into his room asking “who’s the n***** who did the talking?’ while waving a gun in his face.
He said: “I was so scared that I closed my eyes and prayed I wouldn’t get shot.
Parker, who was in a room next to Till, said the pair eventually found the 14-year-old and dragged him out of bed and took him into the night.
He said he still remains disturbed by the memories of the night and said he recalls how terrified Emmett was due to their ‘lack of emotion.’
He added: “They had a certain look on their faces, like they were about to do something evil.”
Wheeler also noted that he and Till’s mother tried to warn him of the dangers of the Jim Crow South but he didn’t fully grasp it.
He also spoke of the impact the murder had and the shock it caused across the nation.
He continued: “I tell people, Emmett, was not the first person that suffered at the hands of Southerners.
"However, as fate would have it, this story took a wild turn. It spread everywhere. Additionally, the white people were not accustomed to stories spreading in this manner.“
Years later Milam and Bryant admitted to the killing of Till in a magazine interview; however, due to the law, they could not be retried.