Welcome to this week’s History Thread! This week will be another open thread, so feel free to discuss what you will.
Today’s picture: Emmett Till was lynched on August 28, 1955. The fourteen year old Till, a Chicago native, was visiting relatives in Mississippi and stood accused of whistling at a white woman in a store. This being the Jim Crow South, Till’s offense was unconscionable, and the woman’s husband and brother-in-law abducted him, beat him, murdered him and dumped him in the Tallahatchee River. The murder drew extensive press coverage, thanks in part to Till’s family arranging for a public, open-casket funeral, providing the world a shocking insight into the true nature of American racism, and galvanizing the nascent Civil Rights Movement.