JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – Officials with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) announced that the gun used in the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till and the weapon’s holster have been acquired. The gun and holster are now on display at the Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson.
The announcement was made on the 70th anniversary of Till’s murder.
According to MDAH, the Foundation for Mississippi History acquired the artifacts for donation to the state agency. Historians said both artifacts were owned by J.W. Milam, who along with his half-brother Roy Bryant, confessed to Till’s murder in a “Look” magazine article published in January 1956, some four months after an all-white jury in Tallahatchie County acquitted the men in the case.
MDAH officials said the artifacts were acquired from a Mississippi family that is not connected to the case.
“The gun is the central artifact in one of the most important stories in Mississippi history and American history,” said Two Mississippi Museums Director Michael Morris. “The artifacts are displayed in an exhibit about Till’s murder in an interpretation that tells the whole story – from the teen’s entry into Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market to his murder.”
Morris said MDAH informed Till’s family about the artifact acquisition.
“I think it’s good because it brings closure. I hope you guys can find the ring and cotton gin. Thank you doing this,” said Wheeler Parker, a cousin who was in the home when Till was abducted by his murderers.
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FILE – This undated photo shows Emmett Louis Till, who was kidnapped, tortured and killed in the Mississippi Delta in August 1955 after witnesses claimed he whistled at a white woman working in a store. Till’s cousin, Patricia Sterling, filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, to compel the current Leflore County sheriff, Ricky Banks, to serve an arrest warrant on Carolyn Bryant in the kidnapping that led to the brutal lynching of Till, a Black teenager. She has since remarried and is named Carolyn Bryant Donham. (AP Photo/File) -
Officials with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) announced that the gun used in the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till and the weapon’s holster have been acquired. (Courtesy: MDAH) -
Officials with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History (MDAH) announced that the gun used in the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till and the weapon’s holster have been acquired. (WJTV)
The artifacts will be on permanent display in a theater where a narrative film describes what happened to Till, a teenager from Chicago who had come to Mississippi to visit relatives seven decades ago.
After purchasing bubble gum at the grocery store in Money, Mississippi, Carolyn Bryant, the wife of Roy Bryant, accused Till of whistling at her. Till was taken from his uncle’s home in the middle of the night on August 28, 1955, and was not seen again until his body was found floating in the Tallahatchie River. His body was disfigured from torture and lynching.
The FBI reopened the case in 2004 as part of the federal agency’s Cold Case Initiative, but after thorough review determined it lacked jurisdiction to bring charges. The serial number on the gun in the Two Mississippi Museums exhibit matches that of the gun investigated by the FBI.
“The gun and holster, along with other artifacts in the case, will be used to educate generations about this era in our nation’s history,” Morris said.