Relatives of black man murdered for whistling at white woman to speak in Columbiana County

COLUMBIANA

When 14-year-old Emmett Till took a train from his native Chicago to visit relatives in the Deep South, no one could have predicted he would be killed in so brutal a fashion that his death would help spark the modern civil-rights movement.

“I want to give them an opportunity to experience and meet living history — people who were there when this happened,” said Jackie Mercer, an English and American literature teacher at Crestview High School.

Mercer was referring to giving her students and others a chance to meet Simeon Wright and Wheeler Parker, cousins of Till, who was kidnapped in the early morning of Aug. 28, 1955, while visiting Wright and other relatives in Money, Miss. Parker and Wright were in the house when the kidnapping occurred.

A few days later, a fisherman found Till’s mutilated body in the Tallahatchie River. The crime shocked the nation and was a spark for the civil-rights era. It was sparked over Till's whistling at a white woman.

Wright and Parker will discuss their recollections of events before, during and after the killing in a presentation they are giving from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday in Crestview Local Schools Performing Arts Center, 44100 Crestview Road.

Read the full story Monday in The Vindicator and on Vindy.com.