Clinton Melton: A Man Who Was Killed In Mississippi Just 3 Months After Emmett Till
The murder of Emmett Till 65 years ago this week became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Radio Diaries tells a lesser-known story of a Black man killed in a nearby town three months later.
August 28 marks 65 years since the murder of 14- year-old Emmett Till, the crime that served as a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. But Till's death was not the first racially motivated killing in Mississippi that year, and it wouldn't be the last.
In the summer of 1955, Clinton and Beulah Melton lived in Glendora, Miss. — 20 miles from where Till was murdered in Money, Miss. Clinton pumped gas and fixed flats at the local gas station, while Beulah stayed home with their four children. Deloris Melton Gresham was the oldest, just five at the time. "Growing up, it was always a happy home," she recalls.
