Emmett Till marker in Miss. riddled with bullet holes
TALLAHATCHIE COUNTY, Miss. -- The sign placed at the site where Emmett Till’s body was found appears to have been damaged by bullet holes, CBS affiliate WJTV reports.
Till, a black 14-year-old boy from Chicago, was kidnapped and brutally killed in the Mississippi Delta in 1955 after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman. His murder helped rally the civil rights movement.
The historical site has gotten a lot of online attention after Kevin Wilson Jr. posted a picture of the damage on Facebook.
Now, the Emmett Till Interpretative Project is raising money to get the sign replaced.
The sign has more than 40 holes in it. Those who oversee the Emmett Till Memory Project are collecting the donations. They said if they reach 10 percent of their goal, they can replace the sign. If they reach the entire goal, they can update the sign and develop a smartphone app that has GPS tracking that will connect them to other marked sites.
WJTV talked with Wilson, who posted the photo online.
“That marker was just evidence that there are people who are still living in those areas who still hold those ideologies dear to their heart,” he said. “Ideology that we’re trying to get away from.”
The sign reportedly has been vandalized in the past. The first time it was vandalized was in 2008. No one has ever been arrested for vandalizing the sign.