Emmett Till: 70 years since Chicago teenagers' brutal death in Mississippi, Reverend Wheeler Parker honors cousin
Thursday marks 70 years since the murder Emmett Till.
Reverend Wheeler Parker, Till's cousin, is the last living witness to the deadly kidnapping.
Back in 1955, they traveled from Chicago to Mississippi together.
He's remembering his cousin as he takes the same route they took seven decades ago.
"You didn't die in vain, and you still speak from the grave, and we are going to carry on your legacy," Reverand Parker said before boarding the train.
John William "J.W." Milam who, alongside Roy Bryant, abducted Till from his great-uncle's home on Aug. 28, 1955. The white men tortured and killed Till after the teenager was accused of whistling at a white woman in a rural Mississippi grocery store.
Till's body was later found in the Tallahatchie River. Bryant and Milam were charged with Till's murder, but they were acquitted by an all-white-male jury.
Mamie Till-Mobley, Till's mother insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago, forcing America to confront the realities of racial violence.
Till's murder was a pivotal moment in the Civil Rights Movement. Thousands came to his funeral, and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, insisted on an open casket so the country could see the gruesome state of her son's body.
AP News contributed to this report.
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