ST. LOUIS — The Federal Government is reopening its investigation into a brutal killing that helped inspire the civil rights movement. In August it will mark 63 years since Emmett Till was murdered, but his death can still be felt today.
Till was just 14 when he was dragged out of his family’s home, beaten, shot and thrown in a river in Mississippi. All this happened because a white woman said he made an unwanted advance at her. No one was ever convicted of his killing.
A group of St. Louis students have a unique connection to the legacy of Emmett Till as they learned an important lesson during a trip down south to visit one of Till’s historical markers.
While they were there, however, they realized the marker had been vandalized. So, they took it upon themselves to repair it by replacing it with the truth. And that’s exactly what they think needs to be done while reopening this investigation.
Although a lot has changed since the killing, Cultural Leadership students like Dani Gottlieb and Bryce Berry said there are some things that have remained the same, like racism.
"Racism was in the United States in 1955 and it’s still in the United States in 2018. Racism has grown and developed but so have we, so have the defies of racism," Gottlieb said.
That’s why they are taking it upon themselves to be the change they want to see in their communities, so when they saw the historical marker in Mississippi had been vandalized they vowed to make it right.
"That was a moment I had to ask myself 'You see hatred, what are you going to do about it?” Gottlieb said.
“We said, as a class, we couldn't leave without doing anything and leaving that marker torn and ripped apart, the facts in history gone away,” Berry said.
So, they replaced it with the facts, and they're hoping the department of justice reopening the case will do the same.
“It teaches us to not stop fighting for justice, to not stop fighting for what’s right, even 63 years later we still have to seek what is right in the world," Gottlieb said.
And they plan to keep fighting until their voices are heard, it’s something they believe requires no age limit but instead courage.
"I want to make sure that people know what happened at these historical places and all the racial violence we see in our country today,” Berry said.
"We need to have action, we need to teach people, we need to march in the streets, we have to share stories of people such as Emmett Till, and that's why reopening this case is a step forward to overcoming the racism that's been in our country for hundreds of years,” Gottlieb said.
