- The Justice Department is reportedly investigating a photo of three University of Mississippi students holding rifles while standing next to a civil rights memorial.
- The memorial commemorates Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy who was tortured, killed and thrown into a river after being accused of flirting with a white woman in 1955.
- Dr. Davis Houck of Florida State University told The DCNF that “for (many?) white Deltans, having Emmett Till physically on their landscape is maddening, perhaps even provocative.”
Till was 14 years old when he was tortured, killed and thrown into Tallahatchie River after being accused of flirting with a white woman outside her family’s grocery store in 1955, adding fuel to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s.
“For (many?) white Deltans, having Emmett Till physically on their landscape is maddening, perhaps even provocative,” Dr. Davis Houck of Florida State University, who helped lead the Emmett Till Memory Project to commemorate Till, told The Daily Caller News Foundation.
“But several [Deltans] I’ve interacted with over the years simply don’t know the correct history — who Emmett Till was, what he did, what was, in turn, done to him, and the basic history of the case. Minus that factual information, whites and blacks, especially in the Delta, have an awfully hard time talking with each other,” Houck continued.
“We believe it is important to keep a sign at this historic site, but we don’t want to hide the legacy of racism by constantly replacing broken signs,” the statement continued. “The commission hopes this sign will endure, and that it will continue to spark conversations about Till, history, and racial justice.”
Houck said “the significance of the present photograph has a few levels: one, three Ole Miss students (four?) felt brazen enough to: perhaps shoot up the sign (we don’t know yet); pose for photographs next to it with guns drawn; post it prominently on social media; and leave it up for several months.”
“That this wasn’t offensive to them, and apparently their social media followers,” he continued.
Guajardo said in a statement that the image is “offensive and hurtful” and the University supports “the actions made by the Kappa Alpha Order leadership in suspending the students involved, and we are aware that this decision is backed by its National Administrative Offices.”
A fourth sign, which will be bulletproof, is expected to replace the vandalized one soon, CNN reported.