It’s been exactly 70 years since Emmett Till was killed, and the Mississippi Department of Archives and History has announced it’s acquired the gun used in the senseless murder.
“The gun is the central artifact in one of the most important stories in Mississippi history and American history,” said Michael Morris of the Two Mississippi Museums, where the weapon and its holster are now on display along with other artifacts related to Till.
The Foundation for Mississippi History acquired the artifacts for donation to MDAH before turning them over to the museums in Jackson.
Both the gun and its holster were owned by J.W. Milam. Milam, who along with his half-bother and Carolyn’s husband Roy Bryant, murdered the 14-year-old Till after the Black teenager from Chicago was wrongfully accused of making indecent advances at Carolyn Bryant, a white woman, inside a grocery store in the Mississippi Delta on Aug. 28, 1955.
Milam and Roy Bryant confessed less than a year after the murder during a magazine interview that they were the ones who murdered Till but were never convicted. Carolyn Bryant admitted in 2007 that Till never touched her.
The artifacts were donated by a family that is not connected to the case, and Morris encourages everyone to visit the Two Mississippi Museums for a better understanding of Till’s story and how the teenager became a catalyst to the national civil rights movement.
“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,” he explained. “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.”
RELATED: Emmett Till exhibit now on display at Mississippi Valley State University
Remaining family of Till were pleased to hear the gun and holster had been located after decades of endless questions. However, they hope additional items used in the murder will turn up soon.
“I think it’s good because it brings closure. I hope you guys can find the ring and cotton gin. Thank you for doing this,” Till’s cousin, Wheeler Parker, told MDAH after finding out. Parker was inside the same house as Till when he was abducted by his murderers.
The FBI reopened the case in 2004 as part of a cold case initiative but determined it lacked jurisdiction to bring charges. MDAH officials confirmed the serial number on the gun acquired matches that of the gun investigated by the FBI.
The Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson have worked since its opening in 2020 to tell more people the story of Till and how his mother chose to have an open-casket funeral – a move that is credited for major strides toward racial equity. Rosa Parks even famously said she was thinking about Till when she decided not to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus in December 1955.
