Authorities are currently investigating a picture that surfaced of three white frat boys from the #UniversityofMississippi posing with guns in front of #EmmettTill’s memorial.
While many are hoping the students will face consequences for their actions, the picture also shed light on the fact that the memorial has been vandalized multiple times over the years, signifying the disrespect of the civil rights icon whose death at the tender age of 14 became an important catalyst in the movement.
The sign, which was placed near the spot where Emmett’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in 1955, has been removed and will be replaced with a bulletproof one, @cnn reports.
“For 50 years our community didn’t want to talk about Emmett Till, they just wanted to forget it,” said Patrick Weems, the executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission. The memorial was removed when the commission learned that the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica were publishing a story along with the photo of the students who disrespected the memorial.
The students have been suspended by their fraternity and the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is also reportedly investigating.
Unfortunately, this was not the first time the memorial had been vandalized.
The first sign went up along the river in 2007 and was stolen the following year. No arrests were ever made in that case. When the marker was replaced, it was riddled with bullet holes.
Then in 2018, a third sign was put up at the site but only 35 days went by before it was shot up again.
The sign will be replaced in October with a nearly 600-pound sign made of reinforced steel, according to Matt Dilling, founder of Lite Brite Neon Studio in Brooklyn who has been working to create the bulletproof sign.
“We won’t’ stop. There will be another sign up,” said Rev. Willie Williams, the commission’s treasurer. “This particular area will go forward in the long run. Because this legacy and this story, it’s much bigger than any of us.”
The commission is also asking local authorities to launch an investigation into the students’ photo.
We’ll keep you posted on the latest, Roommates.
