JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The gun used in the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till is now on display for the public to see, 70 years after the killing.
The Mississippi Department of Archives and History unveiled the .45-caliber pistol and its holster during a news conference Thursday, which is the 70th anniversary of Till’s murder.
The gun belonged to John William “J.W.” Milam, who, alongside Roy Bryant, abducted Till from his great-uncle’s home on Aug. 28, 1955. The white men tortured and killed Till after the teenager was accused of whistling and making sexual advances at Bryant’s white wife, Carolyn Bryant, in a rural Mississippi grocery store. In 2008, Carolyn Bryant would later admit that her accusation was “not true.”
Till’s body was later found in the Tallahatchie River. Bryant and Milam were charged with Till’s murder, but they were acquitted by an all-white-male jury.
The gun was previously in the possession of a family in the Mississippi Delta, who donated it on the condition of anonymity. It will be displayed in the Emmett Till exhibit at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. The gun was authenticated using the serial number, which matched the one written in FBI reports on Till’s murder.
Michael Morris, the director of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum and the Museum of Mississippi History, said he hopes the anniversary will cause people to reflect on how Till’s story has impacted societal progress.
“To me, that’s the legacy. It’s not just his death. It’s the way that he still finds a way to inspire folks to be the change that they want to see in the world,” Morris said.
Till’s murder was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Thousands came to his funeral, and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, insisted on an open casket so the country could see the gruesome state of her son’s body.
Read more stories about Emmett Till at our Emmett Till archive page here.
