Emmitt Till's murder catapulted America into the civil rights movement. Now, more than fifty years later, we are seeing the fruits of that movement. The despicable incident involving the Harvard professor Henry Gates who, despite his prominent position and privileged life, found it within himself to yell "racism” when a white policeman arrested him for disorderly conduct, is testament to this "progress."
The event has been covered extensively these past few days.
I just want to point out the uncanny news of three gravediggers and the cemetery manager at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip Illinois, where Till is buried, that were charged with removing bodies from graves, and re-selling the emptied plots. Their charge occurred only ten days before the Gates story. Although Till's grave remained unharmed, his original casket, which was glass-covered so that, according to his mother, "the world would see what they've done to my boy," was found rotting in a nearby shed. It had been given to the cemetery to be displayed in a mausoleum.
The four that were charged with this desecration are all black. This includes the former manager, who had been entrusted with the memorial fund for the mausoleum, but who police now believe pocketed the money.
It is almost as though this incident, quiet yet devastating to the family members who had graves desecrated, was a premonition of the events to come.
