Openly Racist NY Times Writer Vandalizes Historic Memorial

Syke... it was the Trumpanzees.


Emmett Till Sign In Mississippi Vandalized With Bullet Holes — Again

Vandals shot up a sign in northern Mississippi memorializing Emmett Till, a black teenager whose lynching in 1955 was a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement.

The historical site marks the area where Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River three days after he was murdered. At least four bullet holes pierced the marker on July 26, just 35 days after the sign was replaced a second time.

In 2007 the Emmett Till Memorial Commission erected eight markers, including the river sign, around Tallahatchie County to commemorate Till’s death. The first riverside marker was stolen in 2008 and was never recovered. The sign was replaced later that year but was repeatedly vandalized by gunfire until it was taken down in 2016. The third sign was rededicated on June 21 this year.

“We are deeply saddened by this ignorant act,” the Emmett Till Interpretive Center wrote on its website. “But we know acts of hate will lead to acts of generosity and love.”

After the vandalism, the center created a fundraising page to raise money for Till-related initiatives, including the purchase of land to create a memorial park.

The center has not yet decided whether it will replace the marker once again. A signmaker in New York has offered to make a new one, Patrick Weems, a co-founder of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, told HuffPost.

Till was 14 years old when he was kidnapped, beaten, tortured and shot after a white woman accused him of making sexual advances toward her in her husband’s store in Money, Mississippi. Two white men acquitted of his murder later confessed to killing Till, and the woman has recanted her allegations. No one else was ever charged.

The Department of Justice informed Congress this March that it was reopening the case, citing “the discovery of new information.”

Weems said he’s unwilling to let “one lone vandal stop us” from continuing the center’s mission of telling the story of the Till tragedy and leading toward racial healing.

Alvin Sykes, the president of the Emmett Till Justice Campaign, told Mississippi’s Clarion-Ledger that the sign should remain as it is ― bullet holes and all.

“The sign going back up is a sign of progress,” he said. “The bullets are showing how much further we need to go.”

 

I'm sure Stephen Miller has it all worked out already.

 

The Trumpanzees are at it again.

The Emmett Till memorial where the frat students posed is gone. A bulletproof sign will replace it soon




A bullet-riddled memorial sign for Emmett Till at the center of a photo showing three white University of Mississippi students posing with guns is now gone.

It has been vandalized multiple times over the years and, in a few months, the sign will be replaced again -- this time with a bulletproof marker.
The sign was placed near the spot where Till's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in 1955. The 14-year-old African American was tortured and killed by two white men after accusations that he flirted with a white woman. His death became an important catalyst in the civil rights movement.

Patrick Weems, the executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, said the group began to mark every site that was part of Emmett's story after community leaders offered his family an apology for the first time about 10 years ago.

"For 50 years our community didn't want to talk about Emmett Till, they just wanted to forget it," Weems said.

The 50-pound purple marker was removed a few days ago when the commission learned that the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting and ProPublica were publishing a story along with a photo of the three University of Mississippi students, Weems said.

The students have been suspended by their fraternity and the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division is also reportedly investigating.
It's not the first time the sign has seen trouble.

The first sign went up along the river in 2007 and was stolen the following year. No arrests were ever made. When the marker was replaced, it was riddled with bullet holes. 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 sign.

And this time, the sign is expected to be bulletproof.

"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 asking local authorities to launch an investigation into the students' photo. Members said they don't know whether the students damaged the sign.

As Weems walked around the remote site where the marker once stood on Friday, he said, the vandalized signs have brought him both frustration and hope.

"And the hope is that there are people around this country who care about this story," Weems said. "That Emmett Till did not die in vain. His mother didn't allow him to die in vain and we have a sacred oath to make sure that these sites go back up."

 

That would be a stark change from the last 500 years.