His name was Emmett Till.
After Emmett s body was recovered days later in a river, his mother insisted on an open casket funeral with viewing of his mutilated remains. With that, she found public attention to the horrific, racially-motivated crime. Two white men were arrested on murder charges; then acquitted by an all-white jury. The suspects story, with an interview given after they could no longer face criminal implications, appeared in Look magazine in 1956.
In the meantime, knowledge of Emmett s fate became the spark for what led to the Civil Rights movement in the South.
Denn Pietro, 45, of Trenton, learned the story of Emmett and his mother, Mamie Till Bradley, when working on other projects.