Bulletproof memorial to Mississippi civil rights icon Emmett Till replaces vandalized sign

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/20/racist-civil-rights-emmett-till-death-sign-memorial-mississippi/4044945002/

N'dea Yancey-Bragg, USA TODAYPublished 12:44 p.m. ET Oct. 20, 2019 | Updated 4:44 a.m. ET Oct. 21, 2019

A new bulletproof memorial to slain civil rights icon Emmett Till was unveiled Saturday in Mississippi after previous historical markers were repeatedly vandalized.

The new 500-pound reinforced steel sign, placed at the spot where the 14-year-old's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, has a bulletproof-glass front, according to Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. The sign will be open to the public but also protected by a gate and surveillance cameras, according to the memorial’s commission.

About 100 people, including members of Till's family, attended the rededication ceremony, Weems said.

"Our community for 50 years was silent around what happened to Emmett Till, both the murder and later the injustice," Weems said. "It was just a really powerful day to have our community leaders, both black and white, from Tallahatchie County, along with the Till family, to kind of put a stake in the ground and say: 'We’re going to be resilient and continue to tell this story despite the vandalism.' "


A 500-pound, bulletproof sign was unveiled Saturday at the site where civil rights icon Emmett Till was pulled from the Tallahatchie River. (Photo: The Emmett Till Interpretative Center)

Emmett Till sign vandalized: Till memorial will be made bulletproof after photo of gun-toting students surfaces

The 14-year-old black youth was abducted, tortured and murdered in 1955. Carolyn Bryant Donham, a white 21-year-old shopkeeper in the town of Money, Mississippi, had said Till grabbed and wolf-whistled at her. An all-white, all-male jury in Mississippi acquitted two white men accused of the slaying.

Since the first memorial was erected at the site in 2008, Till signs have been vandalized multiple times, including with spray paint and acid.

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Nearly 65 years after his murder, they were forced to create a bulletproof marker.

[BlancheSplanchnik]

1. 😪

[NurseJackie]

2. Here's the vandalized one. People are idiots.

[Arkansas Granny]

5. Idiot racists, more than likely.

[oasis]

10. Without a doubt. nt

[alphafemale]

13. It was also overgrown with weeds.

Someone could have seen to that.

If the state would not.

[RAB910]

3. Can we remove Mississippi's statehood and replace it with Puerto Rico?

[Duppers]

9. Yes

[MineralMan]

4. Bigots continue to kill Emmett Till, long after his death.

They demonstrate that little has changed in the minds of some.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

6. Bulletproof? Challenge accepted!

I'm sure some of the upstanding citizens in the area are loading up the armor-piercing .30-'06 and other goodies.

This will be tested.

[GemDigger]

8. Imagine the ricochet bouncing off that sign.

It might be a learning experience for some.

[Docreed2003]

7. A sad testament to how little things have changed

I've driven around Mississippi to this and other civil rights era locations and I was never able to shake the overwhelming sense of dread and, for lack of a better description, darkness some of these areas seem to have. Its almost suffocating, and I cannot begin to imagine what people like Emmitt and Chaney, Goodman, and Schwerner, and countless other nameless individuals suffered and endured.

[oasis]

11. Ronald Reagan saw fit to launch his presidential campaign in those parts.

[ck4829]

12. Done by the same people who consider confederate statues to be "historical monuments"

[Mc Mike]

14. The 'get over it' crowd is having trouble getting over it.

So they have to expend ammunition, on a sign that really hurts their feelings.