U.S. reopens 1955 killing of black youth

[desdemona]

U.S. reopens 1955 killing of black youth

Probe to examine slaying that ignited civil rights movement

Monday, May 10, 2004 Posted: 4:37 PM EDT (2037 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department is reopening the murder investigation of Emmett Till, a black Chicago teenager killed during a 1955 visit to Mississippi apparently because he whistled at a white man's wife.

The murder was an early spark for the civil rights movement. The only two people ever charged in the case, the husband of the woman Till purportedly whistled at and his half brother, were acquitted by an all-white jury, although they later admitted to the killing in a magazine interview. Both are dead.

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http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/05/10/civil.ri...g.ap/index.html