Emmett Till Historical Marker In Mississippi Vandalized
A civil rights historical marker remembering Emmett Till was vandalized in Mississippi during the weekend. The sign was erected in 2011 to remember the life and death of the black teenager who was kidnapped and lynched in 1955.
Allan Hammons, a public relations official of the firm that made the marker, said on Monday that someone scratched the marker with a blunt tool. During the past week, a tour group discovered that vinyl panels, that contained photos and words about Till, had been peeled off the back of the metal marker. Students from St. Louis put up a temporary fix with their own writings and drawings of Till, Associate Press reported.
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The damaged sign was placed outside the long-closed Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market, where 14-year-old Till whistled at a 21-year-old white shopkeeper in August 1955. This is not the first time that a memorial of Till has been vandalized.
In October 2016, vandals had shot around 40 bullet holes at another marker installed to honor Till in Tallahatchie County, where his body was found. A New York University graduate student, who was making a film about Till had taken a photo of the marker and posted it on social media, after which it had gone viral, Washington Post reported.
Following the incident, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center raised more than $20,000 and replaced the memorial.
Till was kidnapped and murdered in August 1955 for whistling at a white woman, when he was visiting his relatives in Mississippi Delta. His disfigured body was later recovered from the Tallahatchie River. Thousands of people attended his funeral and gruesome photographs of his disfigured body were published in newspapers and magazines, Washington Post reported.
An all-white jury acquitted two white men, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam for Till's murder. The woman he allegedly accosted also admitted that she was never touched or provoked by him.
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Mississippi civil rights markers are often the targets of racist vandalism. A historical marker recognizing the 1964 killings of civil rights workers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner were also repeatedly targeted with vandals painting the sign black and even stealing it on one occasion. Following repeated attacks, Chaney’s grave had to be barricaded with steel frames to keep his the memorial safe, reports said.
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