''The Murder of Emmett Till'' is a 2003 documentary film produced by Firelight Media that aired on the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

program ''

American Experience ''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...

''. The film chronicles the story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy from Chicago visiting relatives in

Mississippi Mississippi () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States, bordered to the north by Tennessee; to the east by Alabama; to the south by the Gulf of Mexico; to the southwest by Louisiana; and to the northwest by Arkansas. Miss ...

in 1955. He was brutally murdered by two white men after a white woman falsely claimed that he had whistled at and groped her. Emmett's mother, Mamie Till Bradley, insisted on a public funeral with an open casket. Photos of the decaying and mutilated body flooded newspapers, putting the case on the map both nationally and internationally. The two men accused of his murder were acquitted after a short five-day trial with an all-white male jury, making a mockery of any possibility of justice. Shortly afterward, the defendants sold their story to journalists detailing how they carried out the murder. The Emmett Till case was a significant motivator of the

Civil Rights Movement The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...

, and the

Montgomery bus boycott The Montgomery bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against the policy of racial segregation on the public transit system of Montgomery, Alabama. It was a foundational event in the civil rights movement in the United States ...

began three months after his body was discovered in the

Tallahatchie River The Tallahatchie River is a river in Mississippi which flows from Tippah County, through Tallahatchie County, to Leflore County, where it joins the Yalobusha River to form the Yazoo River. The river is navigable for about . At Money, Mississi ...

Awards

*2004 Henry Hampton Award for Excellence in Film and Digital Media *2003 Emmy Award – Best Non-fiction Director

Stanley Nelson Stanley Earl Nelson Jr. (born June 7, 1951) is an American documentary filmmaker and a MacArthur Fellows Program, MacArthur Fellow known as a director, writer and producer of documentaries examining African-American history and experiences. He i ...

*2003 Emmy Nomination – Best Screenplay Marcia Smith *2003 International Documentary Association Awards – Distinguished Documentary Achievement *2003 Sundance Film Festival Special Jury Award *2003 Peabody Award

References

*http://firelightmedia.tv/project/the-murder-of-emmett-till/ *http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/ 2003 television films 2003 films African-American history of Mississippi American Experience Documentary films about African Americans Documentary films about the civil rights movement Documentary films about crime in the United States Documentary films about racism in the United States Documentary films about United States history Films directed by Stanley Nelson Jr. History of Tennessee 2000s American films Emmett Till in fiction {{civil-rights-movement-stub

Awards

See also

References