By Jonathan Munk
Now almost 50 years after the Emmett Till case closed, the U.S. Department of Justice announced this week it is reopening the case because they have reason to believe that others involved in the murders may still be living.
In the summer of 1955, Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy, visited some relatives in the South. While there, he allegedly whistled at a white woman who worked at a local grocery store.
A few days later, Till was beaten and shot by his two white accusers, who dumped Till''s body in the Tallahatchie River. The case has been reopened with the idea that others may have been present for the beating.
An all white jury acquitted the two men, who are now deceased, after a short trial.
'The Emmett Till case stands at the heart of the American civil rights movement,' said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. 'This brutal murder and grotesque miscarriage of justice outraged a nation and helped galvanize support for the modern American civil rights movement. We owe it to Emmett Till, and we owe it to ourselves, to see whether after all these years, some additional measure of justice remains possible.'
The NAACP has been asking the Department of Justice to reopen the case for some time.
'I am glad to see the case is being reopened, but it is sad that it has taken so long,' said Kweisi Mfume, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
Before leaving his hometown in Chicago to visit relatives, Emmett''s mother, Maimie Till, had warned him that things in the South were not as safe for African-Americans as they were in the North.
Allegedly, Emmett Till went into a grocery store after his friends dared him to walk in and talk to the pretty white lady, Carolyn Bryant, 21, who worked inside.
When Carolyn''s husband, Roy, heard about Emmett''s actions in talking to his wife, he decided to take action.
Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam took Emmett from his uncle''s house and into a nearby barn, where they beat him.
After the beating, Roy and Milam shot Emmett in the head, wrapped a 70-pound cotton gin fan around his neck with a wire, and dumped his body in the Tallahatchie River. A fisherman found his body three days later.
Emmett''s mother became a strong advocate for civil rights after her son''s death, and fought to have her son''s case reopened. But she passed away before she could see her wish granted.
The Emmett Till case has come into the spotlight recently in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the Brown vs. Board of Education court decision.