Emmett Louis Till was born in Chicago on July 25, 1941 . He was a 14-year old Black youth, was murdered in August 1955 in a racist attack that shocked the nation and provided a catalyst for the emerging civil rights movement. A Chicago native, Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, when he was accused of harassing a local white woman. Emmett was the only child of Louis and Mamie Till. He never knew his father, a soldier, who died during World War II. At the age of five, Emmett was stricken with polio. Emmett Till's murder became a symbol for the horrific treatment of blacks in the American South. Rosa Parks attended a rally for Till in Montgomery, and she cited his murder as one of the reasons she famously refused to move to the back of the city bus.