About Emmett: Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African American boy who was kidnapped in August 1955 from his uncle’s Mississippi home after allegedly whistling at a white woman. His battered body was found 3 days later; two white men were tried and acquitted of his murder shortly thereafter (but they later sold their confession to Look Magazine). Media coverage surrounding Emmett’s funeral and the trial brought wide-spread public awareness and outrage over the treatment of African Americans, and many believe this incident was the true spark for the ensuing Civil Rights Movement. It has also been argued that it served as the basis for the Tom Robinson trial in Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird.”