After 35 days of being replaced for vandalism, the memorial sign of Emmett Till has been filled with bullet holes again.
What We Know:
- The Emmett Till memorial was put up by the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, and resides outside of Glendale, Mississippi. According to TIME Magazine, this is the third time that the sign has been vandalized.
- To drive up and see it like that, I was sad,” said Patrick Weems, a founder of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Miss. “When we finally replaced it, it was an amazing feeling that this sign that had been obliterated was finally restored.”
- The memorial was placed in honor of 14-year-old Till who was lynched, beaten and tortured by two white men, and then thrown in the Tallahatchie river. He was accused by a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, of whistling at her. The men where acquitted of his murder, and she recanted her story decades later after Till’s death.
- It was not until 2007, 52 years after Till’s death that he received his first memorial sign. It only lasted one year, before the sign was stolen and never returned, New York Times reports. Several signs have been replaced since the first one was stolen. Another was also shot, and the newest sign was replaced in June.
- No one has ever been caught for vandalizing the signs, but Mr. Weems says, “My sense is that it only takes one person to do this.”
Mr. Weems says that there are talks of a new sign being being designed and made out of steel to be better than before. The Emmett Till foundation continues it’s journey to preserve his legacy.
