Cold Case

Terrell: Emmett Till learned that the hard way. Terrell tells her sister the story of Emmett Till, the "boy who whistled at a white girl". Emmett Till was a 14-year-old black boy who allegedly whistled at or flirted with a white female shopkeeper. As a punishment, he was later kidnapped by two white men who brutally assaulted and murdered him. His story has earlier inspired another Cold Case episode, episode 2-19: Strange Fruit.

Lt. Stillman: Brewerytown was lily white back then. Pierces were the first black family to move in. Det. Miller: That some kind of excuse? Lt. Stillman: Not excuse; the times. Det. Jeffries: A.k.a "white flight": families hightailing it to the 'burbs, terrified that their property values would tank. The term "white flight" is used to describe the phenomenon where white people start to desert a previously predominantly white neighborhood once people of other racial backgrounds move in. The reason is often racism combined with the financial reasons Det. Jeffries cited.