Two months after law enforcement officers found it rotting in a shed at a south suburban cemetery, a casket that once contained Chicago native Emmett Till’s corpse will be restored and donated to a soon-to-be built Black museum in Washington, D.C.
Two months after law enforcement officers found it rotting in a shed at a south suburban cemetery, a casket that once contained Chicago native Emmett Till’s corpse will be restored and donated to a soon-to-be built Black museum in Washington, D.C.
Till’s family announced Friday at the Robert Temple Church of God, 4021 S. State St., that the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African-American History and Culture is where the casket will be on display by 2015, when the museum is expected to open. For now it remains at A.A. Rayner and Sons Funeral Home on the South Side.
Till is buried at the Burr Oak Cemetery, 4400 W. 127th St., with his mother and grandmother. Although four former cemetery employees are accused of disturbing hundreds of gravesites in a plot-reselling scheme, Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said Till’s gravesite was not disturbed.
Family members said Till’s body will remain at Burr Oak despite all that has occurred there this summer.
In 2005, Till’s body was exhumed for the first-ever autopsy after which he was reburied in a new casket.
The Robert Temple Pastor Cleveland Wardlow said Friday’s announcement, which came on the 54th anniversary of Till’s murder, was held at his church because that is where Till’s funeral was held.
Till’s mother, Mamie, insisted on an opencasket funeral for her son even though his body had been beaten, one eye gouged out and thrown in a river. Mamie Till wanted other Black people to see what happened to her son and what could happen to them by whites.
Jet magazine published a photo of Till’s mangled face on the cover, a bold move back then, said Linda Johnson-Rice, CEO of Johnson Publishing Company, parent of Jet and Ebony magazines.
“If Till were murdered today I wouldn’t hesitate to publish his photos on the cover,” she told the Defender.
Lonnie Bunch, who will be the museum’s director, said he was not quick to accept Till’s casket.
“The family wanted to preserve it in a respectful way,” Bunch said. “But it did raise philosophical, ethical and sensational issues that I wanted to think about. And I wanted to consider them as a museum director, as a historian and someone who has to raise funds. I wanted to understand all the hurdles.”
But after much consideration and speaking with the Till family and others, Bunch said accepting the casket turned out to be a good decision.
Simeon Wright, 54, is Till’s cousin and was with him when he was murdered in Money, Miss. on Aug. 28, 1955, reportedly by a group of white men.
“We were in the bed sleep when a group of white men entered our bedroom and woke Till up,” Wright recalls. “The only reason I am alive today is because I pretended like I was sleep so they left me alone.”
Till was just 14 when he went to Mississippi to visit Wright, who was 12 years old at the time. According to Wright, Till whistled at a white woman to let her know he thought she was cute.
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In photo: Simeon Wright
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