Till's Memory Among Cemetery Outrages

When news photographers entered the shed that holds Emmett Till's casket, they found a dark, dirty place that houses a rotting piece of history.

The reaction from family members...outrage. (sot) Ollie Gordon is Till's cousin. "I did view the casket and it is appalling to see the condition in which it has been allowed to decay."

Gordon says the casket was supposed to be part of a memorial that included the bodies of Emmett's mother, stepfather and grandmother.

It would be deeply meaningful by any standard, based on everything that Emmett Till meant to the nation.

Simeon Wright was on that trip from Chicago to Mississippi, back in 1955. They were there to see relatives.

One day they went to a store and a white woman named Carolyn Bryant was there. What Emmett Till did as they left changed the course of American history.

Wright said: "For some reason he whistled at her. We don't know why, up until this day."

Emmett Till paid for that with his life, because three days later two men came to the home where he was staying, abducted, then killed him. He was buried in the casket that now's now disintegrating in that Burr Oak cemetery shed.

"It plays a part in civil rights as much as when they had the funeral and all the thousands of people came by, so it's just part of history," said Gordon.

Thousands of people saw Emmett's horribly disfigured body in that casket. His relatives wanted justice then and sadly, they have the same sentiment today.

Simeon Wright says: "I'm not going to have any rest until I see justice."