Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- A new Justice Department office would investigate and prosecute "cold case" murders from the civil rights era, under a measure approved by the Senate on Wednesday. The Unsolved Crimes Section would target pre-1970 homicides motivated by racial hatred that remain unsolved, often because of lax state and federal prosecution at the time they occurred. The bill was inspired by efforts to reopen the case of Emmett Till, a 14-year old black boy who was murdered in 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, said Sen. Jim Talent, R-Mo., who sponsored the legislation with...

Enzi, Thomas mum on anti-lynching bill By Jessica Lowell rep5@wyomingnews.com Published in the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle CHEYENNE - Fred Lebsack isn't very happy with his U.S. senators. The Cheyenne man said it was "pretty backward" that neither Sen. Craig Thomas nor Sen. Mike Enzi, both Republicans, signed on to support the Senate's apology, issued Monday, for that body's failure to take action when anti-lynching legislation first was proposed. "This is waffling at best, weaseling at worst," Lebsack said, pointing out that Wyoming's nickname is the Equality State. The U.S. Senate passed a non-binding resolution that apologizes to victims for the Senate's...

June 2, 2005 BY DEBRA PICKETT Staff Reporter Perhaps Mamie Till Mobley is still protecting her son. Her decision, in 1955, to display her murdered son Emmett's body under glass might have kept his remains intact until the day federal investigators were finally ready to investigate his death. Officials and family members stood by Till's grave at Burr Oak Cemetery Wednesday morning as Till's body was exhumed. "It was a moment," said Simeon Wright, who, 50 years ago was awakened by the sound of angry men wresting Till, his cousin, from the bed they were sharing. "After you pass through...

Greenville, MS, Jun. 11 (UPI) -- Apparent bullet fragments reportedly have been discovered in the exhumed body of Emmett Till, who was killed by white supremacists in 1955 in Mississippi. The Chicago Sun-Times cited sources close to the investigation who said that examiners are waiting for DNA tests to determine if the body is the 14-year-old's. Till, who lived in Chicago with his mother, was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was dragged from his bed one night. His body was found a few days later in a river. Two men were acquitted of the murder but admitted in an...

When she entered kindergarten, Doria Johnson was well aware of the 1916 lynching of her great-great grandfather in South Carolina--a story so painful that relatives rarely discussed it, let alone share it publicly. Johnson, 44, of Evanston, broke that silence after learning details of Anthony Crawford's death. A wealthy black cotton farmer, Crawford was beaten, hanged and shot more than 200 times by white villagers in Abbeville after a dispute with a white merchant. Having spent 15 years tracking down relatives, researching public records and lecturing on his slaying, Johnson feels appreciative as she travels to Washington this weekend to...

The earth above Emmett Till's grave was scraped away just after dawn Wednesday, and steel cables hoisted his burial vault from the ground at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip as family members prayed nearby. The concrete vault containing Till's metal casket was raised to a flatbed truck and covered in a blue tarp. Seven squad cars then escorted the remains on the 20-mile trip to Chicago, where forensics experts waited to see whether they would shed new light on a murder that helped ignite the civil rights movement. On the way to the cemetery gates, the procession passed by the...

ALSIP, Ill. Jun 1, 2005 — Nearly 50 years after Emmett Till's mutilated body was found in a Mississippi river, federal investigators Wednesday unearthed the Chicago teen's casket in hopes of finding clues to his slaying, a flashpoint in the civil rights era. Mississippi prosecutors and the FBI have said DNA or other evidence might help determine who killed the black 14-year-old and whether anyone still alive should be prosecuted. Till's body was found by fishermen in the Tallahatchie River in August 1955, three days after he was abducted from his uncle's home in Money, Miss., reportedly for whistling at...

May 17, 2005 — The FBI has found a transcript of the 1955 murder trial of two Mississippi men accused of killing Emmett Till. Also Tuesday, the Cook County board voted to take a greater role in the effort to exhume Till's body. If you have ever been to a Cook County board meeting, you know the commissioners discuss many issues over which they have absolutely no control. The planned exhumation of Emmett Till's body is part of a federal investigation opened by the Justice Department in Washington. Nonetheless, county commissioners want a role in the process before Till's body...

CHICAGO - Relatives of Emmett Till disagree over FBI plans to exhume the boy's remains nearly 50 years after he was killed in one of the most infamous crimes of the civil rights era. Bertha Thomas, president of the Emmett Till Foundation, said she was speaking for a majority of the family in saying she would rather see the newly reopened probe end than allow the body to be exhumed. "They had over 40 years to do this, and my major question to the FBI, the Department of Justice and anybody else involved, is why now?" Thomas, a distant cousin...

<p>CHICAGO (AP) - Nearly 50 years after 14-year-old Emmett Till's murder shocked a nation and galvanized the civil rights movement, his body will be exhumed as federal authorities attempt to determine who killed him, the FBI said Wednesday.</p> <p>Till's body, buried in a cemetery in the Chicago suburb of Alsip, will be exhumed within the next few weeks so the Cook County Medical Examiner's office can conduct an autopsy, said Deborah Madden, spokeswoman for the FBI's office in Jackson, Miss.</p>

Nearly 50 years after 14-year-old Emmett Till's murder shocked the US and galvanised the civil rights movement, his body will be exhumed as federal authorities attempt to determine who killed him. The body, buried in a cemetery in a Chicago suburb, would be exhumed in the next few weeks so the Cook county medical examiner's office can conduct an autopsy, an FBI spokeswoman said. The black youth, who was raised in Chicago, was abducted from his uncle's home in the tiny Mississippi Delta community of Money on August 28 1955, reportedly for whistling at a white woman in a grocery...

The FBI will order the exhumation of the body of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Chicago boy who was taken from a Mississippi farmhouse in 1955 and killed for whistling at a white woman, the Chicago Sun-Times has learned. Till's body, which is buried next to his mother's at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, will be exhumed within the next few weeks, and an autopsy will be conducted by Cook County Medical Examiner Ed Donahue, according to a source. "The FBI wants to know who killed Till, and due to the brutal beating he received, an exhumation may provide the evidence...

Why the "60 Minutes" Story on Emmett Till Was a Disappointment By David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito Mr. Beito is an associate professor of history at the University of Alabama and Linda Royster Beito is chair of the Department of Social Sciences at Stillman College. They are writing a biography of T.R.M. Howard, a civil rights leader and entrepreneur who helped to find witnesses and evidence in the Emmett Till case. David T. Beito is also a member of Liberty and Power, a group blog at the History News Network. In the wake of memogate, "60 Minutes" has...

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - The reopened investigation into a brutal 1955 killing of a black teenager is focusing on the white woman the 14-year-old allegedly whistled at and a black man who worked for one of the two acquitted suspects, according to an upcoming CBS "60 Minutes" report. In a news release Thursday promoting Sunday's broadcast, CBS said investigators are focusing on Carolyn Donham, the ex-wife of one of the men acquitted by an all-white jury of murdering Emmett Till. Till was kidnapped from his uncle's home in Money, a tiny Mississippi Delta community, on Aug. 28, 1955, allegedly for...

I know travel is supposed to be broadening. You go some place you've never been before, and you come back changed, with a different perspective, a new appreciation for things. But, for me, a lot of times, it just doesn't work that way. Like, last week, when I went to Mississippi. Maybe a person is supposed to go to Mississippi and notice the ways it has changed since the bad old days. How Jackson is practically a real city. How the Confederate flag is actually only a portion of the state flag. How the hotels take credit cards in addition...

Washington, May 10 Reuters - Nearly a half century after Emmett Till's mutilated body was found in a Mississippi river, the US Justice Department on Monday reopened an investigation into the murder of the black teenager whose death helped spark the civil rights movement. FBI agents and other personnel will be sent to Mississippi to assist local authorities in investigating the 1955 murder, which horrified the country and added fuel to the civil rights movement. Till, a 14-year old from Chicago, was kidnapped and killed while visiting family in Money, Mississippi in August 1955. Two white men, Roy Bryant and...