Emmett Till’s Casket Goes to Smithsonian
The casket of Emmett Till, is being donated to a Washington, D.C. museum. Till’s murder in 1955 helped fuel the civil rights movement. The move is partly prompted by the scandal at the south suburban Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip that left his casket disarray.
By Natalie Moore
Emmett Till’s Casket Goes to Smithsonian
The casket of Emmett Till, is being donated to a Washington, D.C. museum. Till’s murder in 1955 helped fuel the civil rights movement. The move is partly prompted by the scandal at the south suburban Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip that left his casket disarray.
By Natalie MooreEmmett Till was a black teenager from Chicago who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955.
His casket was recently found in poor condition at Burr Oak. It’s now going to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. Lonnie Bunch is museum director.
BUNCH: I was very concerned about the way it was being treated but I also knew as a historian how significant the history of Emmett Till was.
When Till’s body was recovered, his mother insisted on an open casket for the funeral. Till’s mother wanted the world to see the brutality of her son’s death at the hands of white men who say the teen offended a white woman.
Media from around the world captured the image, and it became an arresting testimony to American racism.