Mamie Till knew that a picture of her son as he looked before the beating, mutilation and murder wouldn’t be enough. He would be just another Black face among way too many who were victims of white violence. So Mamie made a hard choice, an open casket and publication of post mortem images of her son.
per wiki
Till's body was returned to Chicago where his mother insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket, which was held at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ.[4] It was later said that "The open-coffin funeral held by Mamie Till Bradley exposed the world to more than her son Emmett Till's bloated, mutilated body. Her decision focused attention not only on U.S. racism and the barbarism of lynching but also on the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy".[5] Tens of thousands attended his funeral or viewed his open casket, and images of his mutilated body were published in black-oriented magazines and newspapers, rallying popular black support and white sympathy across the U.S. Intense scrutiny was brought to bear on the lack of black civil rights in Mississippi, with newspapers around the U.S. critical of the state. Although local newspapers and law enforcement officials initially decried the violence against Till and called for justice, they responded to national criticism by defending Mississippians, temporarily giving support to the killers.
In September 1955, an all-white jury found Bryant and Milam not guilty of Till's murder. Protected against double jeopardy, the two men publicly admitted in a 1956 interview with Look magazine that they had tortured and murdered the boy, selling the story of how they did it for $4000.[6] Till's murder was seen as a catalyst for the next phase of the civil rights movement. In December 1955, the Montgomery bus boycott began in Alabama and lasted more than a year, resulting eventually in a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that segregated buses were unconstitutional. According to historians, events surrounding Emmett Till's life and death continue to resonate. An Emmett Till Memorial Commission was established in the early 21st century. The Sumner County Courthouse was restored and includes the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. Fifty-one sites in the Mississippi Delta are memorialized as associated with Till. The Emmett Till Antilynching Act, an American law which makes lynching a federal hate crime, was signed into law on March 29, 2022 by President Joe Biden
This isn’t my original idea, I heard it in a discussion yesterday. I looked for some attribution but couldn’t immediately find any. I think it was Rev. Al in a discussion on MSNBC, but it could have been someone else.
Ask yourself. What was it about the death of George Floyd that made everyone pay attention? It was the video of a brazen Derek Chauvin with his knee on Floyd’s neck. Not a still image, but video.
Imagine if Americans could see what a high powered round fired from an AR-15 does to the body of a child. How would they react? What would they demand?
Talking about what a bullet does is not the same as seeing what it does. The detractors would scream about the cruelty to the families for the image of their loved ones to be public. Really? They don’t think the actual viewing their child’s body wasn’t cruel? Seeing a body so destroyed by a high powered round that they had to use DNA to confirm identity wasn’t?
The latest line coming from the GOP post massacre is horrified and heartbroken, but it’s just a phrase. There’s not one bit of real concern, they’re just trying to blunt the criticism. Horrified and heartbroken is nothing more than their previous thoughts and prayers. Empty.