In the 50s and 60s it was acceptable for almost any adult to strike any child they caught misbehaving. That was true in MS and in Chicago. The adult would usually give kind of a warning hit to the kid, and then threaten the kid with "do you want me to get your dad?!" Usually the kid would comply and that would be the end of it, if not, they would find the kid's dad and *that* would be the end of it.

None of that is what happened to Emmitt Till. The witness statements mostly contradict, and even Till's friends may have said untrue things that they believed the whites wanted to hear. But this was a situation of racial terrorism, pure and simple. The goal was to scare blacks so they would remain in total social subservience to whites, or else leave the state. We can be sure Till did *something* that blacks weren't supposed to do in that time and place. He might have forgotten to say sir and ma'am. He may have tried to tell a joke. He may have forgotten to let a white customer cut in front of him in line. But we can also be sure that this wasn't harsh discipline gone awry. It was cold blooded murder with terroristic intent.

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