Vandalized Civil Rights Marker In Mississippi To Be Reinstalled

JACKSON, MS — A vandalized civil rights marker in Mississippi was repaired and is slated to be reinstalled.

The marker honors Emmett Till, a black teenager who was kidnapped and lynched in 1955 after whistling at a white woman working in a grocery store.

The slaying galvanized civil rights activists when the boy's mother held an open-casket funeral in Chicago to show how her 14-year-old son was brutalized. The marker was installed in 2011 outside the store in Money. (For more Across Mississippi news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

Someone scratched the sign with a blunt tool two months ago. Tourists noticed a month later that vinyl panels with photographs and text were peeled off the metal marker.

The state paid about $500 for repairs and the marker will be dedicated Tuesday, which would have been Till's 76th birthday.

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS, Associated Press

Photo credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS