Who died and how does affect the main characters?

Emmett is the murder victim of the case, a famous historical figure in real life whose death was one of the factors that sparked the widespread civil rights movement in America. A black teenager and the victim of a racist hate crime, his body was found brutally tortured and disfigured floating in a lake. The events of Mississippi Trial, 1955 center around his death and the undeniable racist and violent ideals that led to it. Some whites like Hiram feel sympathy while other characters like Hiram's grandfather only feel racist scorn.