Civil rights markers in Misssissippi have been a target for decades when it comes to vandalism. The state has several markers around the state, that are designated for moments that took place in the Civil Rights Movement. Historical moments like Ku Klux Klan’s 1964 killings of three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner. Many have gone to document the history of the Civil Rights Movement and tell the stories on film. That was the case of New York graduate film student, Kevin Wilson Jr.

Wilson went down to Mississippi to document the life of Emmett Till. The teen was brutally murdered in 1955 by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milan. Both men were acquitted. Months latter they confessed to the murder in Look magazine. Wilson’s research for his documentary led him to interview one of Till’s cousins, who was there the day he was kidnapped to be killed. To help document the tragic story even more, Wilson went to the scene where the beaten and mutilated body of Emmett Till was removed from the river.

When he got there, he saw the sign marking the spot riddled with bullets. This isn’t the first time the sign was vandalized. In 2008, the sign was vandalized. No arrests have been made in that case. For some reason, many see signs like this as a “reverse racism.” Dave Tell, a member of the Emmett Till Memory Project, told the Clarion Ledger, “These are easy targets, a low-risk outlet for racism. Some people mistakenly see civil rights monuments as a form of reverse discrimination, a threat to their own well-being.”

The vandalism of the sign just goes to show that we aren’t a long way away from where we were decades ago. Racism isn’t and never has been concealed. Like poet Sunni Patterson says:

“They’ll disfigure your body to where folks can’t tell
if you Emmett Till or not,
tell the mama, “Keep that casket open,
let all the world see it ain’t just burning in Mississippi.”
Hell, it’s hot wherever you be..”

A fundraiser to replace the marker has raised over $15,000.

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