Tills body exhumed

last updated 8 January 2015

Alsip, Ill.

The remains of Emmett Till, a black teenager murdered for whistling at a white woman in Mississippi 50 years ago, were exhumed last week, then reburied after an autopsy. Till was dragged from bed by several white men, and his horribly battered body was found days later in a river. The murder helped spark the civil-rights movement, but two suspects were acquitted and have since died. Federal investigators reopened the case after a documentary filmmaker uncovered clues indicating that some people involved in the killing were still alive. Simeon Wright, Till’s cousin, said he hoped the autopsy would produce DNA or other evidence to help bring them to justice. “Emmett’s blood is still crying out all over the world,” Wright said.