IV 
109TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 77
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the murder of Emmett 
Till. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 17, 2005
Mr. 
RUSH
(for 
himself, 
Mr. 
BUTTERFIELD, 
Mr. 
CAPUANO, 
Mrs. 
CHRISTENSEN, Mr. CUMMINGS, Mr. FILNER, Mr. GRIJALVA, Ms. JACK-
SON-LEE of Texas, Ms. KAPTUR, Ms. KILPATRICK of Michigan, Mr. 
LEWIS of Georgia, Mr. MEEKS of New York, Mr. MOORE of Kansas, Mr. 
OWENS, Mr. SCOTT of Virginia, Mr. THOMPSON of Mississippi, Ms. WA-
TERS, Mr. BISHOP of Georgia, Ms. CORRINE BROWN of Florida, Mr. 
CLAY, Mr. DAVIS of Alabama, Mr. FATTAH, Mr. FORD, Mr. GUTIERREZ, 
Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island, Ms. LEE, Ms. 
ZOE LOFGREN of California, Mr. MEEK of Florida, Ms. MILLENDER-
MCDONALD, Mr. PAYNE, Mr. SCOTT of Georgia, Mr. SERRANO, Mr. 
TOWNS, Mr. UPTON, Ms. WATSON, Mr. MCDERMOTT, Mr. RANGEL, and 
Mr. HASTINGS of Florida) submitted the following concurrent resolution; 
which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of Congress with respect to the murder 
of Emmett Till.
Whereas Emmett Till was born in Chicago, Illinois, at Cook 
County Hospital, on July 25, 1941, to Mamie and Louis 
Till; 
Whereas Emmett Till traveled to Money, Mississippi, to 
spend the summer with his uncle, Moses Wright, and his 
relatives;
•HCON 77 IH 
Whereas in August of 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till—with 
adolescent flamboyance, but unfamiliarity of the racial 
customs of the South—allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bry-
ant, a white woman; 
Whereas on August 28, at about 2:30 a.m., Roy Bryant, 
Carolyn Bryant’s husband, and his half brother, J.W. 
Milam, kidnaped Emmett Till from his uncle Moses 
Wright’s home; 
Whereas Bryant and Milam brutally beat Emmett Till, took 
him to the edge of the Tallahatchie River, shot him in 
the head, fastened a large metal fan used for ginning cot-
ton to his neck with barbed wire, and pushed the body 
into the river; 
Whereas 3 days later, Emmett Till’s decomposed corpse was 
pulled from the Tallahatchie River; 
Whereas Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till, made the extraor-
dinary decision to leave the casket open at her son’s fu-
neral in Chicago, in order to allow the world to see the 
brutality of the crime perpetrated against her son; 
Whereas tens of thousands of people viewed Emmett Till’s 
body in a Chicago church for 4 days; and press from 
around the world published photographs of Emmett’s 
maimed face; and the sheer brutality of his murder be-
came international news that highlighted the violent rac-
ism of the Jim Crow South; 
Whereas Jet Magazine and the Chicago Defender published 
photographs of Emmett Till’s body outraging African 
Americans around the United States; 
Whereas the trial of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant began in 
September of that year with an all-male, all-white jury,
•HCON 77 IH 
because African Americans and women were banned from 
serving; 
Whereas the trial of Milam and Bryant was a microcosm of 
the Jim Crow South: African Americans were packed in 
a specific section of the courtroom balcony; the defend-
ants’ families were seen laughing and joking with the 
prosecution and the jury; and food and snacks were 
passed out to white observers; 
Whereas Moses Wright did the unthinkable as an African 
American and openly accused the white defendants in 
public court of murdering his nephew; 
Whereas Moses Wright was run out of town for his actions 
in court; 
Whereas J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant were acquitted of the 
murder of Emmett Till, and Bryant celebrated his ac-
quittal with his wife in front of the cameras; 
Whereas protected from further prosecution, Milam and Bry-
ant candidly confessed their torture and murder of Em-
mett Till—Milam did so on the record—to Look Maga-
zine for $4,000; 
Whereas Mamie Till and thousands of others pleaded with 
the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of In-
vestigation to reopen and investigate the case; 
Whereas the Federal Government did absolutely nothing; and 
President Eisenhower and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover 
refused to reopen the case and did not even answer 
Mamie Till’s urgent telegraph; 
Whereas 100 days later, Rosa Parks refused to give up her 
bus seat to a white patron and the modern civil rights 
revolution began;
•HCON 77 IH 
Whereas many historians regard the murder of Emmett Till 
as the true spark of the civil rights movement; 
Whereas Mamie Till, who died on January 6, 2003, moved 
back to Chicago, taught, and continued to talk about her 
son Emmett’s murder; and expressed her wishes for a 
full Federal investigation; 
Whereas more than 48 years have passed since the murder 
of Emmett Till; 
Whereas the remaining witnesses to this gruesome crime are 
elderly; 
Whereas House Concurrent Resolution 360, ‘‘Expressing the 
sense of Congress with respect to the murder of Emmett 
Till’’, was introduced on February 10, 2004 by Rep-
resentative Bobby Rush; 
Whereas the Department of Justice reopened the investiga-
tion into the murder of Emmett Till on May 11, 2004; 
and 
Whereas Congress supports the decision to reopen the inves-
tigation of the murder of Emmett Till: Now, therefore, 
be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That Congress—
(1) calls on all authorities with jurisdiction, in-
cluding the Department of Justice and the State of 
Mississippi, to—
(A) expeditiously bring those responsible 
for the murder of Emmett Till to justice, due
•HCON 77 IH 
to the amount of time that has passed since the 
murder and the age of the witnesses; and 
(B) provide all the resources necessary to 
ensure a timely and thorough investigation; and 
(2) calls on the Department of Justice to fully 
report the findings of their investigation to Con-
gress.
Æ