emmett till
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Jeff Sessions Met With Emmett Till’s Family, but Will He Give Emmett Justice?
Emmett Till’s family members met privately with Jeff Sessions, head of the U.S. Department of Justice, to ask him for … well … justice. The U.S. attorney general met with Emmett’s cousin—Deborah Watts, the co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation—and Alvin Sykes, a member of the Emmett Till Justice Campaign, on Tuesday. Emmett’s relatives…
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This White Woman’s Painting of Emmett Till Belongs Under the Definition of White-Peopleing, Not on a Museum Wall
Sigh … must we go over this again, white people? In the latest case of habitual boundary overstepping and appropriation, painter Dana Schutz’s work Open Casket has sparked controversy and outrage at the Whitney Biennial in New York City. The medium-sized painting depicts the battered face of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was lynched in 1955,…
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What Trump’s Tweets Teach Us About Trayvon Martin, Mike Brown and Emmett Till
Explaining racism is hard. When you’re illustrating the complexities of racial prejudice in America, it is difficult to bridge the gap between understanding and skepticism in a populace pretending to listen with its arms folded, ready to dismiss any reasonable, salient point that demonstrates the existence of privilege and bigotry. Sometimes it’s not that people…
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Emmett Till’s Family Calls for New Investigation Into 1955 Murder
Relatives of Emmett Till—the 14-year-old Chicago boy who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955, triggering the civil rights movement—are asking for the teen’s case to be reinvestigated after a key witness admitted to lying about the teen’s alleged words and actions before his brutal murder. Two of Emmett’s cousins, Wheeler Parker and Deborah Watts, said…
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Woman Who Caused Emmett Till’s Death Admits to Lying
We all (should) know the story of Emmett Till, the black 14-year-old Chicago boy who was murdered in August 1955 by two white men, J.W. Milam and his half-brother Roy Bryant. As the story goes, Emmett, who was visiting family in Mississippi, had gone into a store to buy some bubble gum. As he was…
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Fundraiser to Replace Bullet-Riddled Emmett Till Memorial Sign Exceeds $15,000 Goal
A fundraiser started to replace a memorial sign marking the place where Emmett Till’s brutalized body was discovered in Mississippi’s Tallahatchie River in 1955 has exceeded its $15,000 goal, the New York Daily News reports. The memorial sign captured nationwide attention last week after filmmaker Kevin Wilson Jr. posted a photo showing the sign riddled with…
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Emmett Till Memorial Sign Discovered Riddled With Bullet Holes
A memorial sign that marks the location where Emmett Till’s brutalized body was discovered in a Mississippi river in 1955 was found riddled with bullet holes, the New York Daily News reports. According to the report, it is not the first time that the sign has been vandalized since it was put in place in…
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The National Museum of African American History and Culture Is The Blackest Thing I’ve Ever Seen This Week…and Ever
I’ve been to the new Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) twice so far – yes, that was a stunt – and it is easily the second Blackest place I’ve ever been in life. The Blackest? I’m glad you asked. That would be in the southeastern quadrant of Washington, DC, where…
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The National Museum of African American History and Culture Opens, Housing ‘Sacred’ Objects
It’s no easy task to encompass the history of a race of people with varying cultures, languages and religions who were forced to create a new culture and community in a foreign land under the brutality of slavery. But the National Museum of African American History and Culture has taken on the task and dug…
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Lena Dunham Apologizes to Odell Beckham Jr.: 'There's a Long, Violent History of White Women Lying on Black Men'
Lena Dunham has apologized for racially charged statements she made about New York Giants receiver Odell Beckham Jr. during an interview with Amy Schumer. In the apology, the Girls star acknowledges the “often violent history of the over-sexualization of black male bodies, as well as false accusations by white women toward black men.” In her…