Record #: R2018-862   
Type: Resolution Status: Adopted
Intro date: 7/25/2018 Current Controlling Legislative Body:
Final action: 7/25/2018
Title: Congratulations extended to U.S. Deptartment of Justice on reopening investigation into murder of Emmett Till
Sponsors: Burke, Edward M.
Attachments: 1. R2018-862.pdf

RESOLUTION

 

WHEREAS, in a report to Congress in March 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was reopening its investigation into the murder of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy and Chicago native whose abduction and killing remains among the most devastating examples of racial violence in the South; and

 

WHEREAS, the reopening of the Emmett Till investigation is a renewed and prominent test for the U.S. Department of Justice whose officials continue to investigate unsolved crimes dating back to the Civil Rights Movement that are thought to have been racially motivated; and

 

WHEREAS, in addition, the U.S. Department of Justice's reopening of the Emmett Till investigation is an opportunity to achieve significant change to the challenges of race that continue to plague our nation; and

 

WHEREAS, Emmett Till was born on July 25, 1941 on Chicago's South Side, and would have celebrated his 77th birthday this year; and

 

WHEREAS, Emmett Till was brutally murdered on August 28, 1955 while visiting family in Money, Mississippi after being accused of whistling at a white woman in her family's store; and

 

WHEREAS, tens of thousands attended Emmett Till's funeral or viewed his open casket in Chicago, and images of his mutilated body rallied popular black support and white sympathy across the United States; and

 

WHEREAS, on September 23, 1955 Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, the men responsible for Emmett Till's kidnapping and murder, were acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury after an hour of deliberation, believing the state had failed to prove the identity of the body; and

 

WHEREAS, the brutality of Emmett Till's murder and the fact that his killers were acquitted of their crimes drew immense attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States, and were an early catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement; and

 

WHEREAS, the City of Chicago continues to memorialize Emmett Till's legacy with the naming of a section of 71st Street as "Emmett Till Road" and the renaming of James McCosh Elementary School as "Emmett Louis Till Math and Science Academy;" and

 

BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Mayor and the members of the Chicago City Council, assembled this twenty-fifth day of July, 2018, do hereby recognize and. congratulate the U.S. Department of Justice in reopening its investigation into the murder of Emmett Till; and

 

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the family of Emmett Till.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edward M. Burke Alderman, 14th Ward