Willie Louis may be one of the most celebrated but least-known figures in a pivotal point in American history: He testified against the men accused of kidnapping and murdering 14-year-old Emmett Till. He died July 18, but his wife, Juliet, announced his death this week.
In August 1955, although emancipation had occurred 100 years earlier, much of the Deep South remained unchanged. The murder of young Emmett Till, who was accused of whistling at a white shopkeeper's wife, horrified the nation. In segregated Mississippi, whites weren't ordinarily prosecuted for killing blacks.