Inventing An Investigation
The FBI responded quickly to the kidnapping and murder of Emmett Till. On September 6 1955, less than two weeks after the kidnapping and murder, and less than a week after the body was recovered, J. Edgar Hoover wrote to the Attorney General:
On August 31, 1955, after the receipt of information that the victim's body had been recovered, the above facts were furnished to Mr. A. B. Caldwell, Chief, Civil Rights Section, Criminal Division, by a representative of this Bureau and Mr. Caldwell stated that the facts did not indicate a violation of the Civil Rights Statute and no investigation should be conducted. The opinion expressed by Mr. Caldwell was confirmed by my memorandum to Mr. Olney of September 1, 1955.
The facts in this case indicate a state offense of kidnapping and murder but there is no indication to date of a violation of the Federal Kidnapping Statute or the Federal Civil Rights Statute inasmuch as the action was taken against a private citizen by a group of citizens. There has been no allegation made that the victim has been subjected to the deprivation of any right or privilege which is secured and protected by the Constitution and the laws of the United States which would come within the provisions of Section 241, Title 18, United States Code. It should be noted that recently in Washington, D.C., a group of white boys from the State of Mississippi were beaten and knifed by Negro youths and this Bureau did not conduct an investigation into that matter upon the instructions of the Criminal Division.
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It only took a little less than 50 years for the FBI to open an investigation of the Emmett Till case - accompanied by much publicity, of course. The report of the investigation includes 12 pages of background information: covering segregation, the Southern justice system, Brown vs. the Board of Education, Citizen Councils, and earlier killings of blacks in Mississippi that year. Yet nowhere does the report mention the FBI's prior refusal to investigate. The only mention of the FBI's role in the case comes in a single (misleading) sentence:
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