Emmett Till was a bright and confident African American boy growing up with his single mother in Chicago. An offer to spend a few weeks with his great-uncle and cousins in Mississippi seemed like a fun way to spend his summer. His mother warned him about the racism and the violence aimed toward blacks down South, but Emmett paid little heed to her words. Then, just a few days after arriving in Mississippi, Emmett made a decision that changed everything. Violating Mississippi's deeply ingrained racial codes, Emmett innocently flirted with a white woman-the wife of local store owner Roy Bryant. When Bryant found out, he recruited his brother-in-law, J. W. Milam-who had boasted of pistol-whipping Germans during World War II-and the two proceeded to kidnap Emmett Till. Three days later, fourteen-year-old Emmett Till's body was found in a river, badly mutilated with a bullet wound in the skull. The ensuing trial of Bryant and Milam, and the fallout from its controversial verdict, galvanized the nation, sending a clear and horrifying message about racial oppression and justice in the American South during the Jim Crow era. It also was one of the first major incidents of the civil rights movement, and it was ingrained in the minds of the era's crusaders, an undeniable reminder of what they fought for and what was at stake. Book jacket.