Police launch investigation after Emmett Till memorial is vandalized with bullets AGAIN, 35 days after the shot-up sign was replaced
A historical marker in Mississippi honoring Emmett Till has been vandalized again, and this time by bullet holes.
The sign, which marks the site of where Till’s body was found, had four gunshot bullet holes on Monday after it was replaced a second time for vandalism, according to the Huffington Post.
"After 35 days our historic marker has been vandalized," a statement on the Emmett Till Interpretive Center read. "We are deeply saddened by this ignorant act. But we know acts of hate will lead to acts of generosity and love."
The center added they were raising $100,000 to fix the sign and establish a safer memorial area to honor Till’s legacy.
Emmett Till Justice Campaign president Alvin Sykes told the Mississippi Clarion Ledger the sign should not be replaced again and instead remain with the bullets in it.
"The sign going back up is a sign of progress," he told the publication. "The bullets are showing how much further we need to go."
The 14-year-old teen was kidnapped and murdered in the middle of the night by two men before his body was thrown into the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi, according to the memorial site. The teen "had been accused of whistling at a white woman in Money [Mississippi]" in 1955, the site said. He died on August 28, 1955. The two men accused of killing Till had been acquitted before later confessing to the murder, the site read.
"This is the site where Till’s body was removed from the river," the sign read. "It was then taken to Greenwood, MS. Then the body was sent back to Money, MS, for burial. Via a phone call from Till’s mother, 'not to bury her son,' the body was then taken back to Greenwood. The body was then sent to Tutwiler, MS, for final preparation to be sent to Chicago, IL," the sign continued.
A new book released in 2017 "revealed lies by a key figure in the Emmett Till case," which "promoted the U.S. government to renew its investigation into the brutal 1955 slaying," the Associated Press reported in July.
