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LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE community, business leaders etc., were perceived to be socioeconomically superior to these two segments of the white community.!? The Milam and Bryant families operated a number of smail country stores throughout the counties of interest. Each of these stores catered to the black community. Few opportunities for employment outside of the agricultural sector were available for blacks in the Delta. For those blacks who were able to attend more than a few years of school, career prospects were few. ° J. W. Milam operated an agriculture service business in addition to a store in Glendora, Mississippi, and had interest in at least two other stores, one owned by his half-brother Roy Bryant and the other by his brother Thomas Lamar “Bud” Milam. At least one other brother, Leslie Milam, managed a farm. Other brothers and sisters, including Louise Campbell and her husband Melvin Campbell and mother, Eulah Bryant, operated stores which primarily catered to the black community. B. Segregation and Precipitating Events: 1. Segregation and the Mississippi Deita: In 1955 the state of Mississippi was a segregated society, as was most of the South. After the Civil War many states had enacted laws, termed “Jim Crow” or “Black Code”, to maintain a separation of blacks and whites in the use of certain public facilities. By {907 the list of public places where segregation was mandatory included theaters, water fountains, street cars, boarding houses and other public institutions. '*'* By 1955 ”? Personal experiences of members of the investigation team and anecdotal evidence related to investigators by persons interviewed and/or interacted with during the investigation " Let the People Decide, Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945 — 1986, }. Todd Moye, 2004, 24 “ Hugh Steven Whitaker, “A Case Study in Southern Justice - The Emmett Till Case”, (Master’s Thesis, Florida State University, 1963), 29 to 30 ' United States Commission on Civil Rights, Freedom to Free, Century of Emancipation 1863-1963, A Report of the United States Commission on Civil Right, 1963, 60 13 LAW ENFORCEMENT SENSITIVE This document contains neither recommendations nor conciusions of the FBL It is the property of the FBI and is loaned to your agency; i¢ and its contents are not to be distributed outside your agency.