Emmit Till

There was individual violence as well as institutional violence in the murder of Emmit Till. The individual violence is when the murderers take Emmit Till from his home, torture him and kill him. The institutional violence is shown in the trial. The jury, police and judge all showed racism toward black people. The verdict was that the murderers were innocent even though all of the evidence proved that they had killed Emmit Till. Emmit Till's mother was asked by several people, including the president of the United States to keep the casket closed at her son's funeral but she refused. She wanted to keep it open and have it photographed so that everyone could see what had been done to her son. It would start to make people angry with the racism in the country and more people would work to stop it. When she said "I don't have a minute to hate..." she meant that she can't waste her time hating the people who killed her son. She can spend her life trying to show the world the terrible things that are happening to black people and help do something about it.