Emmett Till

Devery Anderson, author of the forthcoming book, "The Boy Who Never Died: The Saga of Emmett Till," and Dr. Kurt Kemper, Professor of History at Dakota State University in Madison, talk about the Emmett Till lynching. DSU's Karl E. Mundt Library and Learning Commons is featuring an exhibit on the lynching of Emmett Till through October 12th. The exhibit includes a variety of programs in the areas of science, art, multi-media and literature from DSU professors and other area and national presenters. In August of 1955, the saga of Emmett Till began in the town of Money, Mississippi where fourteen-year-old Emmett Till whistled at a woman in a grocery store. Till, an African American boy from Chicago, didn't realize that he had violated the unwritten Jim Crow laws of the South. Three days later, two white men found Till, dragged him from his bed in the middle of the night, beat him and shot him in the head. The men were eventually arrested and charged with the murder of Till, but they were acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury. Till's death was a major catalyst in the beginning of the civil rights movement.