The Trial of Milam and Bryant
Meanwhile, Milam and Bryant had garnered support. Whites in their community claimed they were innocent and supported their defense financially. The trial began on September 19, 1955 in Sumner, Mississippi. The entire jury was composed of white men from the defendants' home county. At trial they asserted that the body recovered from the river was not Till's body. Instead, claimed Milam and Bryant, they had taken Till but had let him go. They alleged that the NAACP and Mamie Till had dug up a body and claimed that it was Till. According to their defense, Till was hiding out in Chicago.Finding witnesses was difficult for the prosecution. In the South, it was dangerous for blacks to testify against any white person, so those who knew anything were reluctant to come forward. However, white and black reporters and the NAACP were able to find witnesses against the defendants. Willie Reed testified on the stand in barely a whisper that he had seen Bryant, Milam, and another man with Till. Further, he testified that he heard screaming coming from the Milam barn. When Milam came out of the barn with a .45 on his hip, Milam asked Reed if he saw anything, and Reed said no. Mose Wright had decided from the beginning that he was going to testify. When Wright took the stand, he testified that Milam and Bryant had taken Till at gunpoint from his home. After Reed and Wright testified, they were quickly escorted out of Mississippi by the NAACP.
Testimony also came from Mamie Till. She testified that the body she buried was her son, Emmett Till. Neither Milam nor Bryant testified. The trial lasted five days. In the defense's closing argument, Milam and Bryant's attorney forewarned the jury about convicting the defendants: "Your ancestors will turn over in their grave, and I'm sure every last Anglo-Saxon one of you has the courage to free these men." The jury deliberated for only 67 minutes; according to one juror, it lasted that long only because they stopped to drink soda. The jury found Milam and Bryant not guilty. They concluded that the prosecution had failed to prove that the body recovered from the river was Emmett Till.
Milam and Bryant Confess to Murdering Emmett Till
On January 24, 1956, Look magazine published the confession of Milam and Bryant, who had agreed to tell their story for $4,000. According to their confession, they beat Till with a .45 in Milam's barn. They proceeded to take him to the Tallahatchie River where they had him undress and then shot him. A gin fan was tied around his neck with wire in order to weigh the body down in the river. They proceeded to burn Till's clothes and shoes.Justice Never Prevails
Milam and Bryant were never charged with any other crimes relating to Till’s murder. After the trial, blacks boycotted the Bryants' store, which forced them out of business. Both Milam and Bryant remained in Mississippi until their deaths; Milam died of cancer in 1980 and Bryant died of cancer in 1994.
The murder of Emmett Till was a shocking example to the world of the danger, inequality, and prejudice that blacks often faced in the South. However, Till's murder helped spur the civil rights movement. It was only one hundred days after Till's death that Rosa Parks refused to sit in the back of the bus.
