Erin DrummondApril 6, 2014Research PaperEmmett Louis Till, a young black boy, only fourteen years old, lived in Chicago and traveled to the South in the mid-20th century. Although he lived a very few years, his life and death impacted the lives of everyone in America's present and past. This boy was accused, hunted, brutally beaten, and ultimately killed because he was black. His killers were acquitted despite having a lot of evidence against them because they were white. Emmett is said to have started the civil rights movement, which inspired people like Rosa Parks and many others. On July 25, 1941, the day Emmett was born, God was with him. He survived many hardships, including a violation birth. Even though the doctors said he would be disabled for life and institutionalized, he wasn't, he had become a very active boy. Emmett loved going out and playing with his many friends. His best friend was his cousin, Wheeler Parker, who lived across the street. When Emmett was only two years old, Louis Till, his father, was drafted into the army. In 1945, Mamie, Emmett's mother, and four-year-old Emmett received news that Louis had been executed for willful misconduct. At the time there was no explanation for the crime. At the age of five, Emmett was struck by polio. He recovered with only a stutter in his speech, which he later corrected himself by whistling. Emmett was named after Mamie's favorite uncle, Emmett, and her husband, Louis. His nickname was BoBo or Bo. He was surrounded by successful black people who, like Emmett, had a strong faith in God. Although Emmett had a job to make money, he also had jobs around the house. She cooked, cleaned, washed clothes and did all other household chores. “He took it all on himself… middle of the paper… his story was published in Look magazine in an article titled “The Shocking Story of the Approved Murder in Mississippi,” for which he was paid four thousand dollars . Less than one hundred days after Emmett's death, Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on the bus to a white man. She later recalled, "I thought about Emmett and couldn't go back." . Emmett sparked the civil rights movement and opened America's eyes to an issue that needed immediate correction. Congress passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964. "The people she really doesn't know that these things happen," Mamie said, "and the fact that it happened to a child makes all the difference" (Source #1). Mamie chose to tell her story by writing a book published in 2003, titled Death of Innocence, he died that same year, but his story will live on.