12AD.8.5 Emmett Till with mother, Mrs. Louise (Mame Bradley) Till, Chicago, Ill.

This is a photograph of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till. It was used in media coverage of Till’s murder. Based on this photograph, what is your impression of Till? What image is projected by the family in this photograph? By choosing this image, what story is a magazine or newspaper trying to tell? If you found images of Martin and his family in your research, how do those images compare to this one?

Media outlets such as LIFE magazine ran coverage of the murder of Emmett Till and showed images of Till with his mother. This image shows one way that the media portrayed Till. As students make comparisons between coverage of Till’s murder in 1955 and coverage of Trayvon Martin’s in 2012, they may use this photo to compare images of Martin that were run with articles about the Martin case. Students may wish to reflect on the differences between the creation of photos in the first decades of the twentieth century and in the era of smartphones and digital photography. Emphasize to students the expense of cameras, film, and developing images like this one of Till and his mother. Then ask students: How has the lowering of costs and the changes in photography influenced the way that we document our lives? How have images like this and of Martin provided the media, and activists, ways to mobilize support for their causes?