The Violent Bear it Away: Emmett Till & the Modernization of Law Enforcement in Mississippi

46 Pages Posted: 27 Oct 2008 Last revised: 7 Dec 2009

See all articles by Anders Walker

Anders Walker

Saint Louis University - School of Law

Date Written: October 27, 2008

Abstract

Few racially motivated crimes have left a more lasting imprint on American memory than the death of Emmett Till. Yet, even as Till's murder in Mississippi in 1955 has come to be remembered as a catalyst for the civil rights movement, it contributed to something else as well. Precisely because it came on the heels of the Supreme Court's 1954 ruling in Brown v. Board of Education, Till's death convinced Mississippi Governor James P. Coleman that certain aspects of the state's handling of racial matters had to change. Afraid that popular outrage over racial violence might encourage federal intervention in the region, Coleman removed power from local sheriffs, expanded state police, and modernized the state's criminal justice apparatus in order to reduce the chance of further racial violence in the state. Though his results proved mixed, many of Coleman's reforms lived on, contributing to the end of public torture and lynching as an accepted mode of punishment in the state. This article discusses those changes, suggesting that they not only influenced the fight for civil rights, but encouraged the modernization of criminal justice in the South.

Keywords: emmett till, civil rights, criminal justice, law enforcement, legal history, southern history, race, lynching, brown v. board, desegregation

Suggested Citation

Walker, Anders, The Violent Bear it Away: Emmett Till & the Modernization of Law Enforcement in Mississippi (October 27, 2008). San Diego Law Review, Vol. 46, p. 459, 2009, Saint Louis U. Legal Studies Research Paper No. 2008-09, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1290805

Anders Walker (Contact Author)

Saint Louis University - School of Law ( email )

100 N. Tucker Blvd.
St. Louis, MO 63101
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
221
Abstract Views
2,385
Rank
249,407
PlumX Metrics