Willie Louis | |
|---|---|
| Born | Willie Reed June 14, 1937 Greenwood, Mississippi, U.S. |
| Died | July 18, 2013 (aged 76) Oak Lawn, Illinois, U.S. |
| Occupation | Trial witness |
| Spouse | Juliet Louis |
Willie Louis (born Willie Reed; June 14, 1937 – July 18, 2013) was a witness to the murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till.[1] Till was an African-American child from Chicago who was murdered in 1955 after he had reportedly whistled at a white woman in a Money, Mississippi, grocery store. Till's murder was a watershed moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Louis testified in court about what he had seen, but an all-white jury found the men not guilty. Fearing for his life, Louis moved to Chicago after the trial and changed his name from Willie Reed to Willie Louis. He was interviewed in 2003 for the PBS documentary The Murder of Emmett Till and was interviewed the next year on the CBS News television program 60 Minutes.