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Emmett Till memorial sign scarred by bullet holes

Posted at 9:48 AM, Oct 22, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-22 09:52:09-04

The sign marking the site where Emmett Till’s body was found is now riddled with bullet holes.

The marker is in rural Tallahatchie County, two hours north of Jackson, Mississippi. CNN affiliate WJTV reported this week that the sign has more than 40 bullet holes in it.

The 14-year-old black teen was killed in Mississippi in 1955 for allegedly whistling at a white woman. The memorial marks the site where his body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River.

The sign has been vandalized before, the first time in 2008, but no arrests have been made, according to WJTV.

The affiliate interviewed Kevin Wilson Jr., who was scouting film locations in the area and posted a picture on Facebook.

Wilson said the discovery shocked and saddened him, and “It kind of spoke to the racial climate in this country not just in the area.”

The Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, is raising money to replace the sign.

Two white men were arrested and indicted in the Emmett Till case, but were acquitted by an all-white jury.

His death drew attention to a prejudiced and corrupt legal system in the Jim Crow South, and was a pivotal moment in the civil rights movement.