Emmett Till Pictures Emmitt Till Coffin goes Smithsonian Institution Museum
Emmett Till Pictures
The glass-topped coffin of Emmett Till left, whose 1955 murder in Mississippi helped stimulate the civil rights movement, has been make a contribution to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, the museum said. The donation will be made public on Friday before a memorial service at the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the place of Till’s funeral. The 14-year-old Till was killed by white men as visiting the house of his great-uncle Moses Wright in Money, Miss., after he was apparent to have offended a white woman. His mother, Mamie Till Mobley, determined to have her son presented in an open casket so the world could see what had been done to him. Till’s body was unearth from the Burr Oak Cemetery in suburban Chicago in 2005 during another criminal examination into his murder, and Till was reburied in another coffin. The National Museum of African American History and Culture is planned to open on the Mall in 2015. The coffin will be observed and housed in the Smithsonian Institution’s Museum Support Center.