Historic Emmett Till marker in Mississippi to be rededicated

GLENDORA, Miss. (AP) – A historic marker describing the lynching of Emmett Till is being rededicated.

The Greenwood Commonwealth reports that speakers will include Till’s cousin Wheeler Parker, now 79. Parker was an eyewitness to Till’s 1955 abduction.

The sign defaced last year stands near the spot where the 14-year-old was accused of whistling at a white shopkeeper, whose husband and another man allegedly beat and mutilated him and threw him into the Tallahatchie River. Till’s mother demanded an open-casket funeral. The men were acquitted by an all-white jury whose members said they knew they were guilty, but didn’t think imprisonment was appropriate for the killing of a black man.

The ceremony, scheduled for 5 p.m. Thursday in Glendora, is supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Most Southern Place on Earth Institute.

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Information from: The Greenwood Commonwealth, http://www.gwcommonwealth.com

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