FAMILY OF EMMETT TILL DONATES ORIGINAL CASKET

The family of Emmett Till marked an occasion fundamental to the American struggle for equality. In the basement of Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ the same church as funeral held for Emmett Till 54 years ago, Simeon Wright, the cousin who was in the bed with Till when he was kidnapped and taken to be killed, stood as a living symbol of a surreal and still hard to believe moment in time.
 
That disbelief is what led Wright to contact the Smithsonian Museum of African American History & Culture with the offer of Till’s original casket as a monument to a tragic time in our nation’s history. In his words, “If someone told you there was a war between the States in the (1800s), would you believe it if there were no monuments? If someone told you a young boy was killed and there was no one to help him, would you believe it? Now we have a monument.”
 
The casket Till was buried in was switched for a new one when Till’s body was exhumed to further an investigation into the murders. The original was stored, in poor condition, in a shed at Chicago’s Burr Oak cemetery, now also known as a place where many graves were desecrated.

Wright visited the cemetery after the recent incidents to check on the condition of Till’s gravesite. It was then that he found the original casket and its current condition. That prompted him to ask if a museum would take the casket. Said Wright, “Hopefully the casket will inspire people to fight for people who are too weak to fight for themselves.”
 
Dr. Lonnie Bunch,  a Chicago native and the new museum’s director, accepted the donation on behalf of the Smithsonian. Bunch, who met years earlier with Mamie Till Mobley (in an introduction by Studs Terkel) was personally touched by the gesture and felt a special duty to preserve the memory.
 
“Part of the responsibility of a national museum is to help people remember. In this case, how the death of a child and a mother’s courage transformed America. This was a crucial moment in the struggle for racial justice… a jolt that helped awaken a complacent America.”
 
Bunch remarked that in anticipation of the announcement, a number of people questioned his desire to accept the donation.  According to Bunch his reasoning can be summed up in this way, “Nothing is more powerful than a nation steeped in its history. Nothing is more dangerous than forgetting.”
 
Linda Johnson Rice, the chairman and CEO of Johnson Publishing Company and the co-chair of the museum Advisory board introduced Wright at the ceremony, calling Till “A young man whose tragic death changed the course of history and paved the way for justice.”
 
JET Magazine’s decision to run close-up photographs of Till’s mutilated corpse lying in the casket was a major factor in gaining the magazine its national reputation. The company has agreed to donate many of the photographs from the funeral to the Smithsonian’s Till exhibit.