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Desecrated Graves and the Casket of Emmett Till
July 10, 2009
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There’s a reason that “rest in peace” is written on headstones — you hope that your friends, loved ones and heroes remain undisturbed in death, keeping the dignity they had in life. This is why the case of Burr Oak Cemetery in Illinois is so horrifying.
In case you haven’t been keeping up with this grisly piece of news, four people dug up hundreds of bodies in this cemetery and then dumped them. According to the Chicago Sun-Times (which has been covering the story in-depth, if you’d like to follow it), many of the coffins and headstones were destroyed, and bones were lying all about the mass grave site where the corpses were left.
The story got even sadder today: one of the caskets lying in a shack is the one Emmett Till was originally buried in.
The name Emmett Till should ring a bell for you. My introduction to Till was through the poetry of Gwendolyn Brooks. My professor let us read about a mother kissing her dead son and then told us his story.
He was 14 when he was killed. He was black and visiting Mississippi in the 1950s. In May 1955, a black man was shot point blank on his way to vote in Mississippi. In that same month, another black man was shot after he voted. There were witnesses to this one — after all, he was right in front of the courthouse. No one caught their killers, because no one tried to.
In August 1955, teenage Emmett went into a grocery store. What happened next may never entirely be clear, but he was accused of acting inappropriately with the woman who co-owned the store with her husband.
Her husband was one of the men who beat him that night before shooting him and weighting his body to dump it in the river.
Till’s mother insisted on an open casket at the funeral, despite her son’s maimed body. Photos were taken and published, and the whole nation and much of Europe saw them and became outraged.
An all-white jury acquitted his killers. That was only a little more than 50 years ago — a reminder that some of the most violent racist events in U.S. history aren’t that far behind us.
How do you define hate?
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EDIT: My original blog post title stated that Emmett Till’s grave was dug up. It was the casket he was originally buried in (replaced after his body was exhumed in 2005) that was found — his grave remains undisturbed. Thanks to Mike W. for the correction.
Comments
14 Responses to “Desecrated Graves and the Casket of Emmett Till”
Katie Lambert says: A sincere thank you for the correction, Mike. I’ve updated the post.
Mike W. says: Katie – You’re welcome. I wasn’t setting out to find you in error. I just wanted to read more about the story after your blog entry and stumbled upon the CNN story (later heard essentially the same thing on NPR this p.m.). It’s a story that everyone should know about; the photographs of the body in the open casket are truly horrifying. It required a lot of bravery and righteous anger for his mother to insist on showing the world what was done to her son.
I’ve really enjoyed your choices of blog material. Keep up the great work.
A Mississippian says: Your post makes it sound like Till lived in Mississippi–he didn’t. He was just visiting, and, according to some, was unfamiliar with what his actions could entail. The part about his casket makes more sense if you point out that he was from the Chicago area. The fact that he was probably very unsuspecting makes the story even sadder. Of course, the fact that so many people had to live in fear of a look that might be misconstrued or the inability to live fully in society is very sad as well. Anyway, I just wanted to clarify that because I think it’s important to make your post make more sense.
Matt Smith says: Wow, what a grisly story. And despite the sickness of it, I find this to be almost comical in our crazy 21st century world. It seems to me that scams for personal gain are the wave of the future, and these guys have got to win the award for the most outlandish and original scam yet, hands down. Reselling graves?? Who’d have ever thought? And they got away with this for four years??
It’s a tough world out there, and we all have to earn a living, but this is stretching it to a pretty grostesque extreme. I hope these clowns will be made to pay full recompense – lengthy jail sentences as well as heavy fines and full compensation to the families of the deceased.
And if you screw around with my corpse once I’m put in the ground, I’m coming back to life to kick your butt!
Katie Lambert says: Mississippian, you’re right — that was a careless error on my part. Till was from Illinois and visiting his great uncle in Mississippi.
It’s a sad story, and I thank all of you for your thoughtful responses.
C lewis says: How did the codex work?
Bill Haynes says: it is true that the jury found the killers of mr till innocent; the jury also found mr o j simpson innocent.it is speculated in mississippi that a black person[s] assisted the killers of mr till, by the way, but it is undeniable that the white people in the area shunned the killers of mr till and ‘ran them out of town’, while, conversely, black people across the nation cheered when mr simpson was found innocent. as far as the alledged other killings of black people for voting, or attempting to vote, it has always been in vogue for the liberal press to make these allegations without giving the details, ie: who was killed, where did it happen, if it did happen is it possible that there was another reason for the killing, etc? is this tomorrow, or just the end of time?
Mike W. says: Darn that liberal press, anyway. I know that Joseph Goebbels hated it, too.
I find it interesting that Mr. Haynes castigates said “Liberal Press” for making “these allegations without giving the details.” I assume Mr. Haynes has documentary evidence for his allegations, i.e., the details, and will be happty to share them with us (something other than unsourced Wikipedia statements).
Other than race-baiting, what is the relevance of the invidious comparison between the trials of Emmett Till’s aleged murderers and O.J. Simpson, and segments of the public’s reaction to the outcome of each?
See, Katie, I told you you’d get one or two postings like this.
Katie Lambert says: O.J. Simpson, Emmett Till and Jimi Hendrix lyrics all in one blog comment!
Matt Smith says: Here’s some more scoop on Emmett Till…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31896164/
According to this article, Emmett’s death was a big motivating factor for Rosa Parks to not move to the back of the bus.
The Emmett Till story was ingrained in my lessons as a young boy so this story is disheartening. I’ve heard the first hand stories of what African-American’s dealt with in the South as both my grandparents were from “battleground” civil rights cities in the south. The most arrogant and shocking aspect of the Till story is not only that the killers were acquitted of the crime, but that they later recalled the crime uncensored to a reporter for a fee. They did this because they could not be convicted as a result of double jeopardy. It just hurts me to hear that someone did this to his burial place, Emmett Till’s mutilated face is one of those images that will stick with me for the rest of my life, which is saying a lot because it happened 32 years before I was born.
Lulupic66 says: I googled the cememtery as I was looking for the history of it. I came across this site and I felt that I had to make an observation.
As far as the Rosa Parks incident, as told my Will Smith in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air……. [yes I stay up late and have to much time on my hands} She didn’t give her seat up, as she was just plain tired!
The observation about Emmet Till’s coffin, this breaks my heart.
As one of other person mentioned, his body was exhumed a few hears ago. I don’t remember why.
The observation is correct that the body cannot be reburied in the original coffin.
The original was going to be restored and become a part of an exhibit dedicated to ET. The cemetery went as far as having people donate funds to help sponsor this..
Let’s see……… no money was ever dedicated to the memorial, and the coffin was found rusting away in a shed……… NICE!!!!!!!
The family is thinking of relocated ET to a different cememtery.
I hope this helps.
I used to live a few miles from there and I have been reading everything very close
Mike W. says: Lulupic66 – check out the link that Matt Smith provided in the post two above yours. It mentions the fact that the cemetery manager apparently pocketed the donations provided for the ET memorial/exhibit. What a bunch of nice folks!
Katie – thanks for an excellent blog entry. I had never heard of Emmett Till but his tale is all too typical of the enlightened south during the Civil Rights struggle…and of course dating back to the founding of the country. I suspect you’ll get some comments from Dixie diehards about your PC attitude and biased and slanted opinions. Or having written that, I’ll get the comments….
I do want to point out that according to CNN, the casket found in the garage at Burr Oak Cemetery in Illinois was Till’s original casket…that his current grave apparently was not one of those dug up. The story also notes that Till was only 14 when he was murdered. Read on for the explanation, particularly the last two paragraphs in the story:
(CNN) — Authorities discovered Emmett Till’s original casket in a dilapidated garage at a historic cemetery where four people are accused of digging up graves and reselling them, police said Friday.
“There was wildlife living inside of it,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said of the casket, which he said was found in the corner of a garage filled with lawn care equipment and other “piles of things” at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois.
“We very quickly came to the conclusion it was the original casket that Emmett Till was buried in,” Dart said.
Till, 14, was killed in August 1955 in Mississippi after he reportedly whistled at a white woman.
His body was exhumed in 2005 as part of a renewed probe into his death. The Chicago Tribune reported that he was reburied in a different casket.
Four people face felony charges after authorities discovered that hundreds of graves were dug up and allegedly resold at the cemetery. Groundskeepers told investigators that Till’s grave was not among them, Dart said earlier this week.