THE LAW: Ill-Chosen Symbol

In Greenwood, Miss., a 20-man grand jury last week declined to indict Roy Bryant and John W. Milam for the admitted kidnaping of Emmett Till, 14, of Chicago, before he was killed. Bryant and Milam were set free; their bail bonds, $10,000 each, were returned, despite the fact that both men, while denying that they had killed young Till, admitted to police that they had taken him from his uncle’s home. On behalf of the Mississippians who regretted the grand jury’s failure to indict, the Jackson State Times concluded: “The case . . . wound up not on the solid ground of justice accomplished but . . . became a symbol of the white-hot determination of Mississippians to conduct their affairs as they pleased. The symbol was ill-chosen.”

At week’s end Illinois’ Governor William G. Stratton asked U.S. Attorney General Herbert Brownell to investigate the disappearance of Emmett Till. Said Stratton: “It now appears that those responsible for this tragic crime are not being brought to justice … I feel it is my duty to respectfully request the U.S. Government … to investigate the violation of rights of this Illinois citizen in another state.”