The Story Of Emmett Till's Murder Is Always Under Threat

Ja'han Jones
A tractor passes an Emmett Till commemorative marker in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, that was rededicated Oct. 19 at a ceremony hosted by the Emmett Till Memorial Commission. The new sign is bulletproof. (Photo: Johnathon Kelso for HuffPost)
A tractor passes an Emmett Till commemorative marker in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, that was rededicated Oct. 19 at a ceremony hosted by the Emmett Till Memorial Commission. The new sign is bulletproof. (Photo: Johnathon Kelso for HuffPost)

Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till’s murder in 1955 catalyzed the civil rights movement and shed light on a raft of brutality inflicted on Black people in Mississippi.

Many locals want Emmett’s story memorialized, but others seek to erase this history, repeatedly making their denial known with violent and visceral desecrations of Emmett’s monuments. In June, for example, a photo went viral online depicting three white Ole Miss students cheerfully posing with guns beside a bullet-riddled commemorative plaque about Emmett Till.

In October, HuffPost traveled to the Mississippi Delta to meet members of the Till family and their allies on the shore of the Tallahatchie River, where they unveiled a bulletproof memorial to Emmett, bringing national awareness once again to the fight for his memory.

Read their words here.

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This article originally appeared on HuffPost.