Lynching victim to be exhumed 50 years on

[emad]

May 06, 2005

Lynching victim to be exhumed 50 years on
From Tim Reid in Washington

THE body of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American whose murder in Mississippi 50 years ago shocked the country and helped to galvanise the civil rights move- ment, will be exhumed in an effort to bring fresh prosecutions.

The move comes one year after federal prosecutors reopened the investigation into Emmett’s death, largely prompted by two documentary films that asserted that accomplices had helped the confessed killers, who are now dead. Emmett’s body, buried in a cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip, will be exhumed for a post-mortem examination.

The lynching of Emmett, on August 8, 1955, in segregated Mississippi touched off intense mourning throughout black America. Emmett’s mother, who died two years ago, insisted that her son’s funeral take place with an open coffin to expose the brutality to which he had been subjected.

Emmett, brought up in Chicago, a world away from the Mississippi delta, was visiting relatives in the South when he was said to have whistled at a white woman. Three days later, fishermen found his mutilated body in the Tallahatchie River. His mother was able to identify him only by a ring he wore.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper/0,,174-1600213,00.html

[MemphisTiger]

1. I'm not sure this is a good idea, it would be good to

find out who actually did it, but that is unlikely. I think it will just open up old scars down here.

[zanne]

2. Justice isn't served "50 years later"...

How many of these investigations and prosecutions are we going to hear about "50 years later"? Justice delayed is justice denied. I'm sure the parents of this poor kid are dead by now, as are the people who killed him. The shame of this whole thing is that it took 50 years for people to say "Hey, maybe we should look into this". It's a sham of justice.