Mississippi
New owner to open barn where Emmett Till was killed as memorial site
The barn in Mississippi where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed will open to the public as a “sacred” memorial site by 2030, the new owner announced.
The Emmett Till Interpretive Center disclosed late Sunday that it had purchased the barn located in a rural area outside the city of Drew, aided by a $1.5 million donation from television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes.
“We think that where the worst harms have happened, the most healing is possible,” ETIC Executive Director Patrick Weems said.
The center plans to open the barn as a memorial ahead of the 75th anniversary of Till’s lynching in 1955.
Two white men publicly confessed to the killing after being acquitted by an all-white jury in Mississippi later that year, but a Justice Department report released in 2021 said at least one more, unnamed person was involved in Till’s abduction. Experts who’ve studied the case believe others participated, from a half-dozen to more than 14.
Till was abducted from his great-uncle’s home on Aug. 28, 1955, after the Chicago teenager was accused of whistling at a white woman in a rural Mississippi grocery store. According to accounts, the men took Till to the barn, where they tortured and killed him. His body was later found in the Tallahatchie River.
At Till’s funeral, his mother insisted on an open casket so the public could see the state of her son’s battered body. It was a pivotal moment in the emerging Civil Rights movement.
Weems said he hopes opening the barn to the public will encourage people to ask questions about a dark chapter in American history.
“Have we done enough? Is there justice yet? Has our society moved in the direction of human rights so that this sort of thing never happens?” Weems said.
The center will have the barn under 24-hour surveillance, and the property will be equipped with floodlights and security cameras, Weems said, calling those measures precautionary.
A historical marker, erected where Till’s body was discovered, has been replaced three times after being vandalized. The first marker was stolen and thrown into the river in 2008. The second was shot more than 100 times by 2014. It was replaced in 2018, and shot another 35 times. Now the marker is the only bulletproof historical marker in the country, according to Weems.
Weems noted that Sunday, the day the barn was purchased, was the birthday of Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Till’s mother was a civil rights activist in the aftermath of her son’s death and died in 2003.
Virginia
Ex-student gets five life sentences for fatally shooting 3 football players
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A former University of Virginia student was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for fatally shooting three football players and wounding two other students on the campus in 2022.
Judge Cheryl Higgins gave Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., who had been on the football team, the maximum possible sentence after listening to five days of testimony. Jones pleaded guilty last year.
The penalty includes five life sentences, one each for the killings of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, and the aggravated malicious wounding of Michael Hollins and Marlee Morgan, Cville Right Now reported.
Authorities said Jones opened fire aboard a charter bus as he and other students arrived back on campus after seeing a play and having dinner together in Washington, D.C.
The shooting erupted near a parking garage and prompted a 12-hour lockdown of the Charlottesville campus until the suspect was captured. Many at the school of some 23,000 students huddled inside closets and darkened dorm rooms, while others barricaded the doors of the university’s stately academic buildings.
Jones’ time on the team did not overlap with the players he shot and there was no indication they knew each other or interacted until briefly before the shooting.
Jones will be able to apply for parole when he turns 60, WTVR reported.
Higgins said no one was bullying Jones that night and no was threatening him. The sentence was not “vindictive” but rather based on a logical analysis, said Higgins, who is an Albemarle County Circuit Court judge.
Jones had “distortions in his perception” or reality, but understood his actions, she said, noting that he texted people before the shooting that he would either “go to hell or spend 100-plus years in jail.” Jones discarded clothing and the gun afterward and lied to police he ran into five minutes later, the judge said.
Within days of the shooting, university leaders asked for an outside review to investigate the school’s safety policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its prior efforts to assess the potential threat of the student charged. School officials acknowledged Jones previously was on the radar of the university’s threat-assessment team.
The university last year agreed to pay $9 million in a settlement with victims and their families. Their attorney said the university should have removed Jones from campus before the attack because he displayed multiple red flags through erratic and unstable behavior.
Jones tearfully addressed the court for 15 minutes during his sentencing hearing, apologizing for his actions and for the hurt he caused “everyone on that bus.” Some victims’ family members got up and walked out as he spoke.
“I’m so sorry,” Jones said. “I caused so much pain.”
Speaking to the families, Jones said: “I didn’t know your sons. I didn’t know your boys. And I wish I did.”
Michael Hollins, a football player who was wounded and survived, told reporters after the sentencing that justice was served “for the most part.”
“Even though that no amount of time on this earth in jail will repay or get those lives back, just a little bit of peace knowing that the man that committed those crimes won’t be hurting anyone else,” Hollins said.
New owner to open barn where Emmett Till was killed as memorial site
The barn in Mississippi where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed will open to the public as a “sacred” memorial site by 2030, the new owner announced.
The Emmett Till Interpretive Center disclosed late Sunday that it had purchased the barn located in a rural area outside the city of Drew, aided by a $1.5 million donation from television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes.
“We think that where the worst harms have happened, the most healing is possible,” ETIC Executive Director Patrick Weems said.
The center plans to open the barn as a memorial ahead of the 75th anniversary of Till’s lynching in 1955.
Two white men publicly confessed to the killing after being acquitted by an all-white jury in Mississippi later that year, but a Justice Department report released in 2021 said at least one more, unnamed person was involved in Till’s abduction. Experts who’ve studied the case believe others participated, from a half-dozen to more than 14.
Till was abducted from his great-uncle’s home on Aug. 28, 1955, after the Chicago teenager was accused of whistling at a white woman in a rural Mississippi grocery store. According to accounts, the men took Till to the barn, where they tortured and killed him. His body was later found in the Tallahatchie River.
At Till’s funeral, his mother insisted on an open casket so the public could see the state of her son’s battered body. It was a pivotal moment in the emerging Civil Rights movement.
Weems said he hopes opening the barn to the public will encourage people to ask questions about a dark chapter in American history.
“Have we done enough? Is there justice yet? Has our society moved in the direction of human rights so that this sort of thing never happens?” Weems said.
The center will have the barn under 24-hour surveillance, and the property will be equipped with floodlights and security cameras, Weems said, calling those measures precautionary.
A historical marker, erected where Till’s body was discovered, has been replaced three times after being vandalized. The first marker was stolen and thrown into the river in 2008. The second was shot more than 100 times by 2014. It was replaced in 2018, and shot another 35 times. Now the marker is the only bulletproof historical marker in the country, according to Weems.
Weems noted that Sunday, the day the barn was purchased, was the birthday of Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Till’s mother was a civil rights activist in the aftermath of her son’s death and died in 2003.
Virginia
Ex-student gets five life sentences for fatally shooting 3 football players
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A former University of Virginia student was sentenced on Friday to life in prison for fatally shooting three football players and wounding two other students on the campus in 2022.
Judge Cheryl Higgins gave Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr., who had been on the football team, the maximum possible sentence after listening to five days of testimony. Jones pleaded guilty last year.
The penalty includes five life sentences, one each for the killings of Devin Chandler, Lavel Davis Jr. and D’Sean Perry, and the aggravated malicious wounding of Michael Hollins and Marlee Morgan, Cville Right Now reported.
Authorities said Jones opened fire aboard a charter bus as he and other students arrived back on campus after seeing a play and having dinner together in Washington, D.C.
The shooting erupted near a parking garage and prompted a 12-hour lockdown of the Charlottesville campus until the suspect was captured. Many at the school of some 23,000 students huddled inside closets and darkened dorm rooms, while others barricaded the doors of the university’s stately academic buildings.
Jones’ time on the team did not overlap with the players he shot and there was no indication they knew each other or interacted until briefly before the shooting.
Jones will be able to apply for parole when he turns 60, WTVR reported.
Higgins said no one was bullying Jones that night and no was threatening him. The sentence was not “vindictive” but rather based on a logical analysis, said Higgins, who is an Albemarle County Circuit Court judge.
Jones had “distortions in his perception” or reality, but understood his actions, she said, noting that he texted people before the shooting that he would either “go to hell or spend 100-plus years in jail.” Jones discarded clothing and the gun afterward and lied to police he ran into five minutes later, the judge said.
Within days of the shooting, university leaders asked for an outside review to investigate the school’s safety policies and procedures, its response to the violence and its prior efforts to assess the potential threat of the student charged. School officials acknowledged Jones previously was on the radar of the university’s threat-assessment team.
The university last year agreed to pay $9 million in a settlement with victims and their families. Their attorney said the university should have removed Jones from campus before the attack because he displayed multiple red flags through erratic and unstable behavior.
Jones tearfully addressed the court for 15 minutes during his sentencing hearing, apologizing for his actions and for the hurt he caused “everyone on that bus.” Some victims’ family members got up and walked out as he spoke.
“I’m so sorry,” Jones said. “I caused so much pain.”
Speaking to the families, Jones said: “I didn’t know your sons. I didn’t know your boys. And I wish I did.”
Michael Hollins, a football player who was wounded and survived, told reporters after the sentencing that justice was served “for the most part.”
“Even though that no amount of time on this earth in jail will repay or get those lives back, just a little bit of peace knowing that the man that committed those crimes won’t be hurting anyone else,” Hollins said.
