A memorial to Emmett Till that has been destroyed by vandals a number of times has some new defenses, including bulletproof glass.
The monument to Till, a 14-year-old black child whose 1955 murder helped spark the Civil Rights movement, was dedicated Saturday.
The memorial, which is believed to mark the spot where Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, was first installed in 2008 but has been destroyed three times. The first time it was stolen and thrown into the river and the other two times it was left riddled with bullet holes and destroyed.
The new sign weighs 500 pounds, is made of thick steel, and will be monitored by surveillance cameras able to transmit feeds over the internet.
Members of Till’s family, including one of his cousins who was there the night he was murdered, attended the ceremony.
Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, said the memorial is an effort to begin “new conversations” about Till’s death.
“For 50 years nobody talked about Emmett Till,” Weems said. “I think we just have to be resilient and know there are folks out there that don’t want to know this history or who want to erase the history.”
“We are just going to be resilient in continuing to put them back up and be truthful in making make sure that Emmett didn’t die in vain,” Weems added.
Till was tortured and killed by two white men after they accused him of flirting with a white woman. The men were acquitted by an all-white jury but later admitted to killing the boy.
Earlier this year, three University of Mississippi students were suspended from their fraternity after a photo surfaced of them posing for a picture in front of Till’s bullet-riddled sign.
