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New Emmett Till memorial will be bulletproof

REPLACED: The previous Emmett Till sign which was taken down this week (Photo credit: Screenshot/WATE 6/YouTube)

A NEW memorial honoring Emmett Till will be built and will include a number of security measures, after previous signs were defaced.

Till was murdered by two white men in 1955, after he was accused of flirting with a white woman. He was brutally tortured and lynched, before his body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River in Money, Mississippi.

His tragic death became a catalyst for the Civil Rights movement after his mother, Mammie Till, decided to showcase his brutally beaten body at an open casket funeral.

In the week that marked what would have been Till’s 78th birthday, the Emmett Till Commission revealed plans were in place to develop a new sign made from reinforced steel and will weigh nearly 600 pounds. It will feature a security gate, surveillance cameras and a bulletproof sign.

The Commission reportedly secured land for the new memorial at Graball Landing in Money, Mississippi..

In a statement on the Commission's website, officials said the gate, cameras and bulletproof plaque were necessary to safeguard the space against destruction by modern-day racists.

“The efforts of the Commission have [previously] been severely hampered by vandalism,” they wrote.

“Our signs and ones like them have been stolen, thrown in the river, replaced, shot, replaced again, shot again, defaced with acid and have had KKK spray painted on them.”

The original sign, which was erected in 2008, had been repeatedly vandalised. The first version of the sign was thrown in the river, while the second sign was shot at with 317 bullets or shotgun pellets before it was removed.

A third sign has been damaged with 10 bullets holes and was removed last week.

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