Big piece of civil rights history is falling apart

[Kadie]

Big piece of civil rights history is falling apart
Updated 2/12/2007 12:35 AM ET


By Jerry Mitchell The (Jackson, Miss.) Clarion-Ledger

MONEY, Miss. — Years of neglect and the battering winds of Hurricane Katrina have all but destroyed the country store where the crime that galvanized the civil rights movement began.

The events at Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market in August 1955 led to the murder of a black teenager named Emmett Till. "Like the Liberty Bell, it's the symbol of the movement," Democratic state Sen. David Jordan says. "That ought not to be lost."

Leflore County Tax Assessor Leroy Ware says the store isn't worth a penny on the county's books — but that didn't stop the crumbling store's owners from initially asking local officials last year for $40 million. They later reduced their asking price to $4 million.

Local officials balked and countered with a $50,000 offer. Talks broke off, and the store has continued to rot, despite being included on the Mississippi Heritage Trust's list of the state's "10 Most Endangered Historic Places."

Harold Ray Tribble, whose family owns the property, says he plans to start working in March with local, state and national officials to return the property to its original condition. "We want to restore it," Tribble says. "It's a part of history, and it's about to fall down."

Till, 14, a Chicago teen visiting his cousins in Mississippi, walked into the general store on Aug. 24, 1955. Some people said he asked for candy. Some said he asked the proprietor, 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, for a date.

more...
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-12-civil-rights-store_x.htm?csp=34




Emmett Till

[illinoisprogressive]

1. When Katrina destroyed, I thought of all the history gone.

[The Straight Story]

2. Thanks for posting this, a kick and R for it

I weep at times for the loss of our symbols of the past. Let's hope someone steps in and can help.

[Kadie]

3. .

:kick:

[Solly Mack]

4. K&R