# Talk:Emmett Till

Emmett Till Memorial Project lists 15, not 51, sites associated with Till, and in both Mississippi and Illinois, not just the Mississippi Delta.
see https://www.etmp.site/  (and click 'skip intro') 128.135.156.163 (talk) 17:18, 29 May 2025 (UTC)

Talk:Emmett_Till/Archive_6#Semi-protected_edit_request_on_11_October_2017 identifies two urls to support the claim of 51 sites as part of the memory project: emmett-till.org and tillmemoryproject.com.  I'd appreciate it if somebody can confirm whether either one of these sites actually supports the claim. Fabrickator (talk) 19:32, 16 October 2025 (UTC)
As far as I can tell, the memory project identifies 11 sites in Mississippi and 4 in Illinois, ie 15, so the may IP above appears to be right. The second link above leads to a cybersecurity site, seemingly no connection to Emmett. Pincrete (talk) 03:23, 17 October 2025 (UTC)
Around the beginning of 2018, the website name "tillmemoryproject.com" was grabbed for something seemingly unrelated called "Till Memory Project".  I was able to identify the 51 sites by examining the Wayback archive.  See also Emmett Till Memory Project]. Fabrickator (talk) 02:24, 20 October 2025 (UTC)

this whole story is a miostake mb i was dreaming 85.92.190.246 (talk) 08:48, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

 Not done: No constructive edit request made. LizardJr8 (talk) 10:31, 25 June 2025 (UTC)

are not available. see the article
https://library.unc.edu/wilson/unavailable-collections/timothy-b-tyson-papers/ 2001:9E8:751F:BF00:A101:9B5A:24C5:FED3 (talk) 08:44, 19 August 2025 (UTC)

With 15 years of bloat since being listed as a good article, I don't think this article sounds encyclopedic any more. More specifically, it tends to dramatise the topic. Examples follow.
In the lead section:

Till's interaction with Bryant, perhaps unwittingly, violated the unwritten code of behaviour for a black male interacting with a white female in the Jim Crow–era South.
This sentence posits the existence of an "unwritten code of behaviour" without ever elaborating on it. No meaningful information is conveyed. If the article wishes to convey that black people in the 50s were expected to stay clear of white people, then it should say so. Don't allude to the "hidden horrors of Southern society". The only thing achieved with the current phrasing is that it paints the South in a bleak light. Indeed, it may have been bleak, but it is not Wikipedia's place to instruct readers on what the correct emotional reaction is when reading an article.

Several nights after the encounter (...)
Should be "A few days later". This flowery language only serves to create a mystical atmosphere.

Three days later, Till's mutilated and bloated body was discovered and retrieved from the river.
The article is stating the obvious. Of course the body was bloated and mutilated after it was mutilated and left in a river for 3 days. The phrasing violates conciseness in favour of trying to make the reader pity Till.

It was later said that "The open-coffin funeral held by Mamie Till Bradley exposed the world to more than her son Emmett Till's bloated, mutilated body. Her decision focused attention on not only American racism and the barbarism of lynching but also the limitations and vulnerabilities of American democracy."
Indeed, that may have been said. By who? Is this a notable quote? Why is it in the lead section? Again, it seems like this inclusion serves no purpose other than to dramatise. Or maybe it's meant to convey that the case is important to the US civil rights movement. But this is already established in the first paragraph of the article, so it's pointless to try to argue it further.
Such issues persist through most of the article, but are most notable in the lead and early life sections.
Now in general I believe that a lot of the lead section should be removed. It is supposed to summarise the article, not recount the entire thing. As for the rest of the article, it contains many pointless details. Most egregious among them, the early life section, which among other things, recounts how:

Webb, Mississippi is a small town in the Mississippi Delta region, which in turn encompasses a multi-county area of northwestern Mississippi in the watershed of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers. (If the reader wanted to know this, they would be reading a different article.)
Emmett played with other children. (Well of course he did.)
Emmett "was a smart dresser". (Despite the obvious fact that he was dressed by his mother.)
Lynchings began to be federally tabulated in 1882. (Why is this in the early life section?)
The article after the early life section tones down the dramatics, mostly because it becomes incredibly confused. It appears that attempts have been made to describe the perspectives of several different observers in a seamlessly flowing prose. These attempts have failed. The sections "Encounter between Till and Carolyn Bryant", "Lynching", and "Trial" all need to be reorganised, preferably complete with dedicated subsections for the most noteworthy narratives. Readers shouldn't have to keep the names and stories of 5 different narrators straight in their mind in order to be able to interpret the article. Dieknon (talk) 12:20, 4 September 2025 (UTC)

I would further add that in the "Encounter between Till and Carolyn Bryant" section, all the following text should be removed as the claim that Bryant recanted her testimony has been discredited. To add the claim to this section gives it a degree of credibility it doesn't deserve.
According to historian Timothy Tyson, Bryant admitted to him in a 2008 interview that her testimony during the trial that Till had made verbal and physical advances was false. Bryant had testified Till grabbed her waist and uttered obscenities but later told Tyson, "that part's not true." As for the rest of what happened, the 72-year-old stated she could not remember. Bryant is quoted by Tyson as saying, "Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him." However, the tape recordings that Tyson made of the interviews with Bryant do not contain Bryant saying this. In addition, Bryant's daughter-in-law, who was present during Tyson's interviews, says that Bryant never said it
It is sufficient to leave this claim in the "Later Events" section. ~2025-33492-93 (talk) 15:55, 15 November 2025 (UTC)

I don't think the N word needs to be anywhere on this page. It contributes to Systemic Racism. You could at least blur part of the word out. Swear words aren't allowed right? This is a derogatory profanity, that makes me sick to see. I've donated to Wikipedia more than once! If I had read this article first, I NEVER would have! I don't even care if me saying anything, as a white person, is considered cultural appropriation! I am disgusted! I will NEVER!!!!! donate to Wikipedia again! 2601:681:4B01:9620:4068:941E:C19F:9F4D (talk) 10:28, 29 September 2025 (UTC)

 Not done Per WP:NOTCENSORED, quotations are included in their original form. Every time the word "nigger" (which I presume is the one you are referring to) appears in the article, is is a direct quotation which is relevant to the topic. This is consistent with Wikipedia policy. Cornerstone1949 (talk) 00:13, 30 September 2025 (UTC)

“it” should be changed to “he” When talking about the findings of exhuming Emmett Till’s body in 2005 Nuriablake7 (talk) 01:43, 5 October 2025 (UTC)

 Not done According to Merriam-Webster, the pronoun "it" refers to an "lifeless thing", which is what a dead body is. As far as I am aware, the use of "it" is only used specifically in reference to his body itself; otherwise we do use "he". The current wording is grammatically correct as far as I can tell. If you know of specific instances where we use "it" improperly (i.e. not referring to the corpse), you are more than welcome to point them out. Cornerstone1949 (talk) 03:23, 5 October 2025 (UTC)

"Whites had also passed ordinances establishing racial segregation and Jim Crow laws." Should specify who the "whites" were. What groups or legislators advocated for segregation? Or what percentage of voters did and how many of those were white? Incorrect and non-informative generalization to say that all whites and only whites advocated for segregation. 98.97.3.171 (talk) 17:35, 14 October 2025 (UTC)

Why? In the context of 'background' to  Till's killing, the only relevant fact is that white-dominated legislature established these laws and practices. Precisely what % of whites were in favour is academic. The article isn't about the precise details of support for such measures, though there is every reason to believe that they enjoyed majority support among whites. Pincrete (talk) 16:39, 15 October 2025 (UTC)

I request for Hector Pieterson and Hastings Ndlovu to be added to the See also section, please. 2A0A:EF40:127F:CA01:AC17:92C6:5C23:5A9 (talk) 15:37, 18 October 2025 (UTC)

 Not done for now: please establish a consensus for this alteration before using the {{Edit semi-protected}} template. x2step (lets talk 💌) 19:37, 18 October 2025 (UTC)
While there are some similarities (black teenagers killed in racist societies), I think the links to Till are too tenuous to justify inclusion here. We probasbly need to limit 'see also's to  US racism victims/people directly linked to US civil rights struggle. To do otherwise would be to open up all young people anywhere, anytime, who are victims of police or racist violence .Pincrete (talk) 04:08, 19 October 2025 (UTC)

"Emmett" (2025), written and recorded by Swedish metal band An Abstract Illusion
should be added to Works inspired by Till section
reference from the AMA: https://www.reddit.com/r/progmetal/comments/1oaa0li/comment/nkn6id9/ 176.233.25.157 (talk) 15:55, 23 October 2025 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but that isn't strong enough sourcing that the music is notable and inspired by Till, we aren't here to promote bands or their work. Pincrete (talk) 16:15, 23 October 2025 (UTC)