Louis Till (February 7, 1922 – July 2, 1945) was an American soldier. He was the father of Emmett Till, whose murder in August 1955 at the age of 14 galvanized the civil rights movement. Till was court-martialed on two counts of rape and one count of murder in Italy in 1945 while serving in the U.S. Army and was executed by hanging. The circumstances of his death were unknown to his family until they were revealed after the trial of his son's murderers ten years later.