Emmett Till's Casket Goes to the Smithsonian Institution
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- čas přidán 12. 09. 2012
- Simeon Wright speaks about the Casket.
In 2005, we had to exhume Emmett's body. The State of Mississippi would not reopen the case unless we could prove that the body buried at the cemetery was Emmett's. State law prohibited us from placing that casket back into the grave, so we had to bury him in a new casket. We set this casket aside to preserve it because the cemetery was planning on making a memorial for Emmett and his mother. They was going to move his mother and have the casket on display. But you see what happened, someone took the money and discarded the casket in the shed. A radio personality called me about six in the morning asking me questions about it. They were on top of what was going on at the cemetery. I told him what was supposed to happen to the casket. He kept asking me questions and I said "Wait a minute, let me go out there and check and see. I don't know what's going on. Let me go out to cemetery and get some answers, find out what's going on out there." That's when I saw the casket sitting in the shed deteriorating. The last time my cousin saw the casket it was inside of the building, preserved. We don't know who moved it out into the shed but I got a chance to see it, it was just horrible the way they had discarded it like that without even notifying us. They could have called the family, but they didn't.
Donating it to the Smithsonian was beyond our wildest dreams. We had no idea that it would go that high. We wanted to preserve it, we wanted to donate it to a civil rights museum. Smithsonian, I mean that's the top of the line. It didn't even cross our mind that it would go there, but when they expressed interested an in it, we was overjoyed. I mean, people are going to come from all over the world. And they're going to view this casket, and they're going to ask questions. "What's the purpose of it?" And then their mothers or fathers or a curator, whoever is leading them through the museum, they'll begin to explain to them the story, what happened to Emmett. What he did in Mississippi and how it cost him his life. And how a racist jury knew that these men were guilty, but then they go free. They'll get a chance to hear the story, then they'll be able to... perhaps, a lot of these young kids perhaps, they will dedicate their lives to law enforcement or something like that. They will go out and do their best to help the little guys that can't help themselves. Because in Mississippi, in 1955, we had no one to help us, not even the law enforcement. No one to help us. I hope that this will inspire our younger generation to be helpers to one another I see something that held the object of a mother's unconditional love. And then I see a love that was interrupted and shattered by racial hatred without a cause. It brings back memories that some would like to forget, but to forget is to deny life itself. For as you grow older, you are going to find out life is laced with memories. You're going to talk about the good old days. When you get 50, you're going to talk about your teenage days. You're going to listen to music from the teenage days. You don't have to believe me, just trust me on that. I'm not talking about what I read in a book. I'm talking about what I've experienced already. Also, it brings to our memories where we have been and where we are now and where we're going. People look at this casket and say, "You mean to tell me this happened in America?" And we will have a part of the artifacts from that era to prove to them that things like this went on in America. Just like the Civil War. By histories of the Civil War. Even today, it seems impossible to me that the Civil War took place in America. Here you have white fathers and sons fighting against each other. Mothers and daughters fighting against each other because one felt that slavery was wrong and one felt that it was all right. And they began to kill each over that. That's hard for me to believe but I see the statues. I see the statues of the solders, the Union soldiers and the Confederate soldiers, and it just helps us to believe the past. This casket's going to help millions to understand and believe that racism, the Jim Crow system, was alive and well in America back in 1955.
Well, I hope, I know one thing, it's going to speak louder than pictures, books or films because this casket is the very image of what has been written or displayed on these pictures. I hope it's going to make people think "If I had been there in 1955, I would have done all I could to help that family." If it could just evoke just that one thought in someone, it would be enough, because then they would go out and help their fellow man, their community and the church and the school, wherever. We have, you know, I just had a couple of months ago a young man, 14 years of age, committed suicide because of bullies in his school. If it could just evoke that one emotion, that "if I had been there, I would have helped you." That's all I want.
Emmett Till was buried in a new casket in 2005,in Chicago.Next to his Mother .
Perushion Rushion thank you...I'm glad he is next to his mother..what a sad thing.how ignorant people were back then...
Lance Henderson ????
Thanks I didn't know that 👍🏾
Ummmm wtf u mean they dug up his body and put in another casket??
Renee Tate I’m not saying racism isn’t still here.but like you just said they got away with it back then and let’s not kid ourselves people today still get away with it.i was merely saying this innocent child is where he should be with his mother.my comment wasn’t about rascism it was about an innocent boy being murdered because a woman lied.
As a family we opted to have the casket refurbished after it wasn't stored and maintained properly by Burr Oak Cemetery. It is being refurbished to the state it was in 1955 including the glass encasement.
Shame on Burr Oak Cemetery.
Are there other signs that his body was in the casket, like bones? I don't quite understand...wasn't he buried in that casket?
Yes 👍!! I Say The Same Thing!! Restore It Back!! But At The Same Token - Take Before And After Photos 📷 Of The Casket And Put A Great Bronze Statue Of Emmett Till On Washington D.C. - So The World 🌎 Could See 👀.. And Write ✍ What Happened To Emmett Till - Because Of Carolyn Bryant Falsely White Lies.
Your choice to restore it will give viewers a better understanding and feel for how it actually was when it held Emit's body in 1955. Bless you, as this needs to be displayed.🙏
It should be on display at the newly-build African American museum in Washington. Or, at the DuSable museum in Chicago, Illinois.
Emmett Till’s casket should include before and after photos and clearly written epilogue. This significant history is vital for progressive future generations.
Some things from history should be left alone..however this needs to live on forever,, a child was murdered,and government local and far ignored it..
Soul resting with his Mother now! May they both Rest in Heavenly love with Gods arms forever around them
I was 9yrs old when this happen but i remember this like it was yesterday
Horrible that a child was treated this way. Bad enough to treat adults as they were, but damn, kids are off limits...
And you're the reason I vote to keep abortion legal...
Black kids aren't though.
Leave it the way it is. I just hope Emmett is peacefully at rest now. It’s a travesty of justice, something needs to be done to bring some justice for this beautiful young boy and his mother RIP ❤️🙏😢
God love that babies heart, that breaks my heart knowing that someone would do such a terrible thing to a littlle child..Why would grown men knowing that child was only 14 years old do such a horrible thing? Makes me ashamed that someone of my own race would do such a horrible thing to such a sweet child.
AND IT'S STILL HAPPENING NOW! THIS MUST STOP! MAY GOD 🙏 CONTINUE TO BLESS HIS SOUL!
What happened at Burr Oak Cemetery was reprehensible. I am so sorry for the families. I just got back from that cemetery today and I am doing a video tribute to Emmett here on CZcams, AND also to a singer I used to love to listen to, she is also buried there - Barbara Acklin. Sadly she has no tombstone. I am trying to find her next of kin so I can buy her one. The office staff there at Burr Oak is not helping me in any way. Thank heavens for good ground crew guys, who helped me find her exact burial location. I just put a white wooden cross at her grave that I made in my garage. it's not great, but it will do for now. If anyone wants to visit and pay respects to Emmett, his grave is easily found. There is a new headstone provided for him, which is very nice. I recorded the GPS location for Barbara's grave and mapped it on the "Find-a-Grave" website. Barbara's grave location can be found here - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Acklin. It will be released Tuesday Nov. 24th at 2PM, Central Time. We need to keep this story alive, our children need to learn from the past. God Bless everyone.
I just came across your video of the Barbara and young Emmett. Great presentation.
MsCardigan1 because his mother wanted people to see what they did to him
Congrats to the initiators, but this is just a minor solace to the injustice done. This injustice was not just the killing of Emmett Till but more so by letting the perpetrators go unpunished by staging bogus trials, and this includes when the case was so-called 'reopened'. Akon once said it beautifully: The establishment of the US was never meant for the Blackman.
Leave it the way it is. This will our young folks n the world in real time, the real history what took place..
Exactly ur very right💔💔💜💜💜💜These young kids today really need to know about our history.cause the battle is not over for our Respect.
for all you who hurt this child all those years ago, may god have mercy on your soul
reason rozum
Awww. It’s kind of small too. A reminder of how young Emmett was.
Such a sad story
I hope to see this one day. I will make a special trip from England.
I don't understand why?????? What is the purpose behind this???? 50 years from now is a young black boy going to say to his father, "I want to go to the Smithsonian to see Emmett Tills casket"? We want to our future Emmett Till's to KNOW that this is the shame of the American history that even today they are so proud of. As Usual, THEY have us on display like they did in the past, in human zoo's and the such. I am appalled at this!!!
I am so confused . I would like to know why did they dig up Emmett grave? I think once you bury someone you need to leave them in the ground and not bother them .
@@traceyf4842 Emmett's body was exhumed when the FBI re-opened the case in 2006. They conducted a post-mortem because there was no proper examination of the body in 1955. Emmett was reinterred in a new casket at a ceremony that members of his family attended. The original casket was supposed to be restored and displayed as part of a memorial/museum at Burr Oak Cemetery, but instead the cemetery left it to rot in a storage shed. It was eventually restored and is now displayed at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
@@mitchellwilson6660 Thank you for answering my question. Have a wonderful, blessed day!🤗
Emmett didn't deserve this at all. He was only a child for God Sake. Why people hate each other why? Because of skin color faith and race. At the end of the day we're all human.
I look at my 13 yr old soon to be 14 and wonder....How can someone just come and snatch a child out of the house in the middle of the night which is a nightmare in of itself and then brutalize the boy 4 hours until they finally murdered him and threw him in the river.... only Satan could do something like that the Demonic possessed a spirit of Satan
@@karenhatch6979 Yes mam. I'm a Muslim from the UK. I follow Islam. We believe in the 10 Commandments .Shall not Kill. I'm also a mother of a 15 Year old son. Believe it or not he looks very similar to Emmett Till. I'd be devastated if anything horrible happened to my son.
@@Surrfathi I agree. My heart aches for every mother who has to endure that level perpetration.
@@karenhatch6979 yes of course
He Has Not. Been At REST Until NOW!!!!!! Everything Out In The OPEN!!!!! 😘😍😢😘😍R.I.P.😘
Where are his bones?
so if they have his casket where is his bone did they return it in another casket
Yes, Emmett Till was reinterred in a new casket in 2005.
WHAT DID I MISS??? Why is he out of his casket???
For purposes of retrieving DNA as the sheriff and the defense lawyers claimed that the body was that of another person.There were others who were believed to have been involved in the actual killing/beating death. At the time (early 2000s), they were still alive and as there is no statute of limitations on murder, the local government wanted to reopen the case. As disturbing as this may sound, there were blacks that were supposedly involved as well.
He at mickey d's
Janice Smith yes of course after 60+ yrs
Back in 1955 in Mississippi black men had to do what white men told them to do, or die ! Thats how they got Emmit Till in the first place, Emmit's Uncle life was threatened if he told any one,
I have just posted the same question . I am stunned .
What happened to this poor boys body ? Have I missed something ?
Emmett Till's body was exhumed in 2005 by the FBI to verify his identity and determine his cause of death.
After the autopsy, his body was placed in a new casket and reinterred in his original plot at Burr Oak Cemetery outside Chicago.
Ok. So, where is his body, now?
Diane Bays
Placed in a new casket and buried next to his mother in Chicago.
@@carolynbrown3379 thank you!
some thing just brings tears to my eyes!! it angers me to see my sorry ass sister and sorry ass brother raise they worthless ass children not to give a fuck about our people!!! then claim they're saved because my momma had they asses dipped in some fucking water!!! we owe it to the people who died from this stuff right here!!!
What happen to the remaining?
He was exhumed in 2005 by the FBI to verify his identity and cause of death. By law, he was reinterred in a new casket. He was buried in his original plot after the autopsy.
His grave is still in it's original location in Burr Oak Cemetery.
No such thing as "Rest In Peace"...
Exactly! More like Rest In Sleep.
@@71marsha Well not in America anyway. Nasty people digging up the dead and reselling their plots. I’m flabbergasted and then to find out they did this crime to Poor Emmett Tills body and they being 4 black people also, well what is the world coming to is nothing sacred anymore.
They would like to put that in a museum as a tribute to the past but witnesses and some guilty people are still alive. Tho it’s a good gesture to let people know what happened to Till so we never forget let’s not put this behind us, justice needs to be sought out for and those in current power in that state have inherited power from the same people that killed Till and released the killers they need to be voted out and compensation for decades of trauma should be given to those in the house when it happened and close relatives of the Till family. They dug him up when he could still be living a healthy life. This shocks me every time I think about it.
Restore it the way Emmitt T. was buried. That's history.
What happened to the body or bones? How did u know it was his? So sad
The FBI exhumed Emmett Till's body in 2005 and after conducting an autopsy and doing DNA tests, he was reinterred in a new casket. The original casket was supposed to be part of a memorial/museum, but instead the cemetery just stuck it in a shed.
They should've kept the casket clean,why they left it so dirty???!!!
Its old
Did you seriously ask that question???? If you have to ask, then clearly you're either too young to be on CZcams or you just lack common sense. Why didn't they keep it clean???? Really???? That coffin had been in the ground for many moons with a DECOMPOSING BODY IN IT BEFORE ITS VANDALISM......
How u going to keep something clean that's been in the ground since 1955
1955 , six foot under dirt and all , what dose that tell you ? ?
@@NOTRUMPZONE OMG lol, be nice the boy just don't understand so he asked,
what happened to Emmett Till's body ?
cannibals.....
cj original dust now
RIP BABY BOY L
Was Emmett a civil rights pioneer? His killing helped start the movement but he personally was not a pioneer. And the casket was not proof of what happened but the pictures certainly were. I don't think I could be as brave as his beautiful mother was.
This is simply a matter of semantics. A pioneer is someone who makes a choice to change things. Emmet was not allowed to make a choice. His mother did, she is the pioneer. I feel he was a victim of a horrible, ungodly crime. I think the people who committed that crime should have been executed. I am sorry to have offended you, I had no intention of doing that. His mother was an exceptionally courageous woman. He was an innocent child. The word pioneer simply doesn't fit grammatically. You seem to think you can bully people but that only makes you look stupid.
kate weiss clearly what makes you look stupid is the blasphemy you posted about that poor deceased black boy. Why couldn't you just leave it at feeling remorseful for his "poor mother" as you so patronizingly put it instead of having to throw insults in. You people will never change. Just a cold, hollow empty heart. I guess you can't help it
+I broke the mold I guess you don't know what blasphemy means. I never said she was a poor woman either. You are speaking in in a very reactionary way. No one respects that. You are a bully.
kate weiss kate weiss did you or did you not express some fake ass remark about "bravery" in regards to Miss Mobley-Till, yes or no, because I don't play word games. I already have a child. Whether those were your exact words or not, your comment on +Mike Sharpe's page, an individual who clearly thinks that the murder of a CHILD is funny proves that you're a phony just seeking attention with patronizing words. Hilarious. I don't think you people possess a decent bone in those NON MELANIN bodies of yours.
kate weiss as I said before, you people can't help yourselves. No need to repIy. Normally, I don't even give you people the time of day. I can't believe that I've given u THIS MUCH OF MY TIME. Notifications will be muted. Enjoy the low life...
His original casket is a disgrace, perpetrated by his own people.
Were the body?
Reburied somewhere else.
@@ddivincenzo1 Reburied in the exact location he was originally buried in 1955, Burr Oak Cemetery.
Roberts Temple Church of GOD IN Christ. Get it right.
if that's the young man casket where is the boys body?
Patricia Clarke it's in a new casket
Kasha Brown I don't know about anyone else but I don't feel this boys tragedy should be put on display...
They threw the body in the dump.
Arky Bald Knobber: Lord God forgive this man because he is evidently wrapped in a delusional state from many evil spirits. Have mercy on his this mans skin. Lord help him to see your face. I feel this is his cry for prayer because he has given up on You Lord God. Lord you said Satan roams about seekuling whom he may devour. If Satan shall ever ask to devour this man Lord God and you allow Satan to move, please have mercy because I know your grace and your love. Holy Spirit teach Arky that you are in him and have been copying our sins through our eyes and is used in judgement.
Apparently, you didn't read, they put his remains into another casket. He's being insulted many year's later by doing this.
Why did it have a glass case?
MsCardigan1 so nobody would have touch him...
Because the body smelt so bad it stunk up 3 blocks from the funeral home. I think they put the glass over to trap the smell.
That's what his mom bought
So the public could view the body without the smell so she had it encased in glass
Want to study black history but don't know where to start? Emmett Till.
I wish they wouldn’t do that. It’s in POOR taste!! Where’s Emmett’s body for crying’ out loud!!??
He is buried in his original plot at Burr Oak Cemetery outside Chicago.
Does your mommy know you're on her computer?
+Mike Sharpe Isn't brokethemold a prize?
Oh, I was mocking you.
I am leaving now for the local kkk meeting so no need to reply!
Does ur mother know ur on her computer
It should have went to the dump
THROW THAT DAMN CASKET AWAY!!!
All this over a dead spook
The fact that you use that word lets me know that you're old as dirt. Be nicer. You won't be here much longer.
I can't believe that came out of your mouth. What if it was your child
It should have went to the Dump
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