The media also played a big role in the murder as they spread the knowledge about the murder. It was reported in most newspapers in both Southern newspapers and Northern newspapers as it was very big news.
Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Bradley, wanted people to remember Emmett’s death and she didn’t want to let people forget what happened to Emmett. To do this, at the funeral she had an open casket where approximately 2000 people walked past. The body hadn’t been cleaned up and all the mourners walked past the coffin – Mamie was trying to send a message saying that it was not acceptable for black children to be murdered just because they were cheeky. Mamie also got in contact with ‘Jet’ Magazine, which ran story on Emmett’s death including photos of the body.
In the 50s there were groups that were there to help blacks get equality, such as NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People) and CORE (Congress for Racial Equality). These groups were originally formed to help the slaves; the groups were very old and were inactive in the 50s. The groups consisted of white and black members. These groups also played a role in the murder, e.g. NAACP funded the prosecution lawyer. Emmett Till’s death gave the groups an opportunity/reason to help the blacks. Emmett’s death helped to start the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King.
In 1998 when James Byrd was murdered the majority of people’s views were the same.
People throughout America were horrified and shocked as the murder shattered the illusions that America was no longer racist.
The murder was given lots of media attention but people weren’t as genuinely shocked as they were when they heard about Emmett Till’s death.
The people from Jasper were scared as the murder happened near them and they didn’t feel safe anymore. And because of the murder this forced the people of Jasper to pull down a fence in the cemetery which was used to separate black and white graves. The demolition of the fence was organised – it was not a riot because the people were tearing down what the fence represented i.e. racism.
The KKK in 1998, were a very small organisation compared to what their previous size used to be, there were only a couple hundred members. During James Byrd’s trial the KKK went to the parking lot in their uniforms and had a display and speakerphone shouting racist remarks. The people of Jasper just ignored the KKK and didn’t do anything about them. The KKK were hoping to cause a racial riot or stir up racist feelings.
There were not only white supremacist group but there also existed black supremacist groups. A well-known group was the Black Panthers; they were the black equivalent to the KKK. They wore green army uniforms and carried guns. They caused riots and held demonstrations. The Black Panthers also showed up at the James Byrd trial and like the KKK they got ignored. This shows that people weren’t racist as they didn’t show interest in white supremacists or black supremacists – they saw each race as equal.
The reactions of the murders were similar in that both had reactions that were shocked from people and also that after the murders took place many people were scared. In both cases the media was present and played a big role in spreading the knowledge.
The reactions of the murders were different in that there were very few people that thought the murder of James Byrd was alright whereas the murder of Emmett Till there were a lot more people that thought the murder was alright. After James Byrd’s murder, race equality groups weren’t needed as the murderers were the exceptions of people that did have racist views. The reaction from the murder of James Byrd had no relevance to where the people lived only whether they were racists or not unlike the Emmett Till murder. We can see that the racist groups were being ignored in 1998 whereas in 1955 these groups were very powerful.
We can see from the differences that peoples attitudes have changed as in Emmett Till trial a racist group didn’t need to be there as there was already enough racist views at the trial whereas there were no racist views at the James Byrd trial, only that of the murderers.