Louis Till

Uncommon card · No. 79647

Louis Till (February 7, 1922 – July 2, 1945) was an American soldier who served in World War II. After enlisting in the United States Army following trial for domestic violence against his estranged wife Mamie Till, and having chosen military service over jail time, Till was court-martialed on two counts of rape and one count of murder during the Italian Campaign. He was found guilty and was executed by hanging at Aversa. Till was the estranged father of Emmett Till, whose murder in August 1955 at the age of 14 galvanized the civil rights movement. The circumstances of Till's death remained largely unknown, until they were revealed after the highly controversial acquittal of his son's killers 10 years later. There is debate on the matter of Louis Till's guilt concerning the crime for which he was executed. In 2016, novelist John Edgar Wideman argued that Till was innocent and that racial bias was a factor in his conviction, comparing it to the trial of his son's murderers.

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