Eyes on the Prize-New Beginnings: Emmett Till and Montgomery Cases

Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Course
Date of Submission
Eyes on the Prize
The difference between the Emmett Till case and the Montgomery case was the manner in which they were handled. Although the two cases happened less than two years apart, the manner in which they were handled made a big difference and led to the failure of the Till case and a resounding success at Montgomery. This paper analyzes why the Emmett Till case failed while a resounding success was experienced at Montgomery.
One of the problems that made the Till case a failure was that the people were not united. When the two white men came to get Till from his grandfather’s house, there was no one to defend him and as such the white men had no obstacle in carrying out their mandate. As the grandfather later testified in court, he had nothing to do when the young boy was taken away as he was afraid of the repercussions if he were to object. While the act was against justice, the grandfather was scared of calling the sheriff as he was afraid that this would affect his family negatively. Even during trial, the people were scared of raising any objection as virtually every white man in the courtroom was armed in anticipation of trouble. Although Till’s parents took some measures to expose the crime, this could not have done much to change the situation in an environment where people did not see what was happening as their problem. The lack of social participation relegated the issue to defeat and led to the lack of any action from the public thus relegating the case to failure. Even the pro...