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In November 2005, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it had concluded its 18-month investigation into the reopened case of the 1955 murder of Emmett Till. This internationally known case involved a 14-year-old African-American boy from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was abducted from his bed at gunpoint in the middle of the night. Three days later, a boy on a fishing trip in the Tallahatchie River found Till’s corpse—battered, mutilated, shot, and weighed down with a 75-pound cotton gin fan. Based on eyewitness testimony about Till’s abduction and an identification of his body by his uncle and mother, Tallahatchie County tried two local white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, for the murder. After five days of trial, a jury of 12 white men deliberated for 67 minutes and voted to acquit. Shortly thereafter, the freed Bryant and Milam sold their “confession” to the murder—in the form of a detailed, gloating testimonial—to Look magazine for $4,000. A more complex set of reasons for the reopening stems from the emblematic significance of the case itself. In announcing the involvement of federal prosecutors, Assistant Attorney General R. Alexander Acosta noted, “The Emmett Till case stands at the heart of the American civil rights movement. This brutal murder and grotesque miscarriage of justice outraged a nation and helped galvanize support for the modern American civil rights movement. We owe it to Emmett Till, and we owe it to ourselves, to see whether after all these years, some additional measure of justice remains possible.” While some have questioned the timing and motivations of the Justice Department’s proclamation, there is no disagreement with its assessment of the historic consequence of the death of Emmett Till. Till’s murder is one of the most infamous acts of racial violence in the history of the United States; it profoundly changed the scope of racial discourse in ways that still resonate throughout American culture. His death and the ensuing trial attracted worldwide attention and outrage. His funeral drew mourners in numbers in the tens of thousands, and his mother’s memorable insistence on an open-casket viewing resulted in widespread circulation of an unforgettable Jet magazine photo of his pulverized face. A generation has grown up with the tragic image of Emmett Till’s defaced corpse etched in its memory. That image and its racial meaning have engendered countless works in politics, history, journalism, and the arts, from the 1950s to the present. Unfortunately, in February 2007, the FBI and the Leflore Country Grand Jury, which was empanelled by Joyce Chiles, a black prosecutor, had found no evidence to charge Carolyn Bryant Donham and Roy Bryant’s ex-wife with the murder of Emmett Till. This is the outcome when people ignore the truth. People like Carolyn Bryant Donham and Roy Bryant’s ex-wife get away with unspeakable crimes. Even though the FBI did its best, there is one phrase that comes to mind by George Orwell “To see what is in front of one's nose requires a constant struggle.” Work Cited “Emmett Till”. Wikipedia.org 9 Mar. 2010 Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 9 Mar. 2010. . “JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO INVESTIGATE 1955 EMMETT TILL MURDER”. USDOJ.GOV. 10 May. 2004 Department of Justice. 9 Mar. 2010. . Laura Parker. “FBI passes Emmett Till case to district attorney”. USA TODAY.com 17 Mar. 2006. USA TODAY. 7 Mar. 2010. < http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-03-16-emmett-till_x.htm>. “THE LONG ARM OF THE LAW Reopened investigation into the 1955 Kidnapping and Murder of Emmett Till”. Fbi.gov. 1 Jun. 04. Federal Bureau of Investigation. 9 Mar. 2010. .