Author: Deleted author
Title: Restoration and Reconciliation: Tallahatchie County
Category: Preservation and Repurposing
Description: Located in the Mississippi Delta, the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner was the site of the Milam-Bryant trial in September, 1955. J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant after receiving a not guilty verdict later confessed to kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Emmett Till, a young 14-year old African-American child from Chicago. This tragedy and injustice galvanized the Civil Rights Movement, as Rosa Parks detailed that she was thinking about Emmett Till as she refused to give up her seat in Montgomery just a few months later.
The restoration of the Courthouse to its 1955 appearance is a reflection of the local communities reconciliation as they reawaken to the truth of these horrific events.
The process of undertaking this restoration is helping to heal this community and is ensuring that Emmett Till will not be forgotten. As the community noted in the first ever formal apology to the Till family in 2007, "racial reconciliation begins by telling the truth". The restoration of the Courthouse is the first step in telling the truth and honoring the life of Emmett Till.
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