A man died this month, 58 years after his brave stand for justice in America failed

emmett tillby Image Editor

Willie Reed, who risked his life to testify in the Emmett Till murder trial, dies at 76 – 
[Via The Washington Post]

Willie Reed did not know Emmett Till, the young black man whose murder in the Mississippi Delta became one of the most infamous lynchings in the history of the Jim Crow South. Mr. Reed saw him only once — on Aug. 28, 1955, during the last hours of Till’s life — in the back of a green and white Chevrolet pickup truck.

Mr. Reed, an African American sharecropper, risked his life at 18 to appear as a surprise witness in the prosecution of the white men accused of the crime. He became the momentary hero of the Till trial, an event that helped spur the civil rights movement but left a moral stain on the American legal system.

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The story of Emmett Till is one of the most disgraceful in our history. A 14 year old kidnapped and beaten mercilessly. Because the white men did not like what the black boy had supposedly done – look at a white woman.

They killed him and sunk his body in the river but it was found. His mother had an open casket funeral, with a glass top for the casket so everyone could see what had been done to her son. (If you have a strong stomach, here is the photo that shocked the country.)

And the bravery of the 18 year old Reed is really hard to believe. He stood up TWICE to testify against the killers in a culture where lynching was still rampant. To no avail. The killers were found innocent of murderingTill. The killers confessed afterwards to kidnapping and killing Till for a magazine. Nothing happened to them.

This miscarriage of justice almost directly led to the Civil Rights Act of 1957, allowing the Federal Justice Department to intervene when civil rights are being abused.

Reed’s brave stand – a black 18 year old testifying against white killers – went for nought. His life was in peril for standing up.

Think of the pressures put on him to keep his mouth shut, to keep his life by being quiet.

Even Till’s relatives thought that Reed had been killed because he simply disappeared after the trials. He went to Chicago  got a new name and quietly lived his life.

We should not forget his bravery. America needs more of it.