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'Justice' at issue in Emmett Till case

Saturday, May 7, 2005

By Marcus K. Garner
Staff writer

Bertha Thomas, president of the Emmett Till Foundation and a distant cousin, plans to have an attorney try to challenge a federal court order to exhume Till's remains.

Another cousin, who witnessed Till's abduction on Aug. 28, 1955, and testified against the two white men accused of the 14-year-old's brutal murder, has broken from the family and the nonprofit foundation to support the FBI and U.S. Justice Department decision to open the tomb.

Till's remains are buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip.

Evidence has shown that unserved arrest warrants may have let some living accomplices in Till's death go unpunished.

Now, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton, both prominent black activists, have taken opposing sides in the debate about whether to exhume Till's body.

"They are dead set on proving that this is not Emmett Till," Jackson said Friday. "For (the FBI) to make this kind of move without family consultation is unjust. They're not looking for a bullet, or any evidence that Till was murdered. Their defense in court was that the body that was found wasn't Till."

Sharpton said it was important to use any means necessary to bring closure to the case.

"This cannot be done without completion of his death certificate and the exhumation of his remains," Sharpton said in a statement Friday. "I support any effort that will bring the murderers of Emmett Till to justice."

U.S. District Attorney Joyce Chile, in Jackson, Miss., issued a court order to have Till's grave opened on behalf of the Justice Department and the FBI.

Federal officials said the exhumation will be performed by month's end because no autopsy was done of Till's body 50 years ago. An FBI spokesman said a family member agreed to the exhumation.

Simeon Wright was with Till on the night of the abduction and said he requested the probe out of respect for Till's late great-uncle. Till was staying at his house when the teen was kidnapped.

"I'm doing this for Mose Wright," Wright said. "I support whatever the FBI has to do."

Till was kidnapped in the middle of the night from his uncle's house in Money, Miss., after whistling at a white woman — a taboo for blacks in the Jim Crow South. His body was found days later in the Tallahatchie River with barbed wire tied to his neck and to a cotton gin fan.

Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, both dead now, were tried before an all-white jury that acquitted them after deliberating for an hour. They later confessed to the crime in a national magazine.

Documentary filmmaker Keith Beauchamp worked for eight years with Till's now-deceased mother, Mamie Till Mobley, to uncover clues pointing to those behind the murder. His research led federal officials to reopen the case last May.

Beauchamp said as many as 14 people were involved in Till's murder, and five are still alive.

Among the living accomplices is Carolyn Bryant. Till whistled at Bryant, who was 21 years old at the time and married to Roy Bryant. Beauchamp said the FBI had issued an arrest warrant in 1955 for her.

"She wasn't at the house the same day the other two were arrested," he said. "And the sheriff never served her with the warrant."

Beauchamp said Thomas and Jackson shouldn't try to block the FBI investigation, regardless of whether the move has political or personal motivations.

"If you ... have the Emmett Till Foundation, and you want to use Emmett Till's name as a legacy, it won't be a legacy until justice is done," he said.

Foundation president Thomas refused to comment Friday. But a family member close to her said those involved in the foundation debated whether to dig up Till's remains and reached a consensus to refuse any such attempts.

Jackson continued to question the motives behind the exhumations, echoing fears some family members expressed that investigators might tamper with the body.

"Can this effort be trusted?" he said.

Till's murder and the surrounding case sparked the Civil Rights movement in the South.

Russell Lewis, a researcher with the Chicago Historical Society who has worked with remains of Abraham Lincoln, said all parties involved should be conscientious of the impact this exhumation could have on history and on the black community.

"You need to be aware that this may have a cultural impact," Lewis said. "This needs to be considered within the framework of ethical consideration, so that not only are you treating that person with respect, but you're treating the descendants, family members and community that might have claim to that person with dignity."

Peter Kirstein, a history and African-American studies professor at Saint Xavier University in Chicago, pointed to how digging up the body of murdered Mississippi NAACP leader Medgar Evers led to a conviction 30 years after Evers' death.

"If it was successful to bring Bryan De La Beckwith to justice, an exhumation could conceivably bring justice to this terrible crime," Kirstein said.

Beauchamp acknowledged the doubts that Till's body was ever found.

"What's been hovering over this case for so many years is that prosecution cannot prove that the body taken from river was Emmett Till," he said.

But Sharpton spokesman Shawn Sachs said it is still important to know.

"If this isn't him, how does it degrade his story about what happened 50 years ago?" Sachs said.

Beachamp said he won't rest until Emmett Till's case is closed.

"The only thing I wanted to do was give closure to the family, and fulfill that promise I made to Mrs. Mobley," he said.

Marcus K. Garner may be reached at mgarner@dailysouthtown.com or (708) 633-5960.