USA TODAY International Edition
Emmett Till memorial now stands bulletproof
A new bulletproof memorial to slain civil rights icon Emmett Till was unveiled this weekend in Mississippi after previous historical markers were repeatedly vandalized.
The new 500- pound reinforced steel sign, placed at the spot where the 14year- 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 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 Saturday, 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.' "
Till, who was black, was abducted, tortured and murdered in 1955. Carolyn Bryant Donham, a white 21- year- old shopkeeper in Money, Mississippi, had said Till grabbed and wolf- whistled at her. An all- white, all- male jury 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.
"We're not naive enough to think that this is the last time that someone tries something," Weems said. "We're hoping with these new modifications this will kind of symbolically be resilient and physically be resilient to overcome any type of vandalism that happens in the future."