US RE-INVESTIGATES A CRIME AFTER 63 YEARS
The federal
government has quietly revived its investigation into the murder of Emmett
Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy whose abduction and killing in 1955
remains among the starkest and most searing examples of racial violence in the
South.
In a report
submitted to Congress in late March, the Department of Justice said it had
reopened its inquiry “based upon the discovery of new information,” but it did
not elaborate. The government has not announced any new charges in connection
with its investigation, and it is unclear whether prosecutors will ultimately
be able to bring a case against anyone.
But the
Justice Department’s decision to devote new attention to the case is a
demonstration of how deeply the episode resonates more than 60 years after Till
was killed in rural Mississippi and photographs of his mutilated body were
published, so staggering the nation that the case is now seen as a catalyst for
the civil rights movement.
