Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till never took off his father’s ring. It was one of the few things he had that had belonged to Louis Till, a man he didn’t even remember. Unfortunately, Louis and Emmett Till would share more than a name and a ring.
Louis Till was stationed in Italy during World War II. There he and another Black soldier were court-martialed for raping two Italian women and killing a third. The evidence was shaky, but in a segregated and racist military, two Black defendants didn’t stand a chance.
On July 2, 1945, Louis Till was hanged. The Till family was not informed of his death until they received his signet ring inscribed with his initials, L.T.
Emmett Till’s body was disfigured from the savage beating he took and bloated from days in the river. That same signet ring that had broken the hearts of the Till family a decade earlier did so again. Racist violence tore through two generations of the Till family.
The trauma of white violence is often generational. Louis didn’t deserve his fate, nor did Emmett deserve his. But they both lived in an anti-Black country that takes comfort in our destruction. Our liberatory fight continues; enough generations have suffered.