In 1956, William Bradford Huie was a journalist for Look magazine. The previous year, Emmett Till a 14-year-old from Chicago went missing from a relative’s home while visiting Money, Mississippi. His mutilated body was later found floating in a local river. Roy Bryant, Jr. and J.W. Milam were acquitted of the boy’s murder. Bryant and Milam had not uttered a word outside the courtroom about the incident or trial until Huie sat down to interview them. What followed was a remarkable confession that cemented Emmett Till’s story as the flashpoint that inspired a generation of young people to commit social change, giving rise to the civil rights movement.
