Emmett Till Memorial Sign Marred by 'So Much Hatred'

A bullet-riddled sign marking the spot where the tortured and mutilated body of 14-year-old Emmett Till was found in Mississippi's Tallahatchie River 61 years ago will be replaced thanks to the generosity of donors. An Emmett Till Interpretive Center fundraising challenge surpassed its $15,000 goal Sunday evening, the New York Daily News reports. Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was visiting relatives in Mississippi in 1955 when he was murdered for allegedly flirting with a white woman. Earlier this month, filmmaker Kevin Wilson Jr. shared a photo of the sign, which had dozens of bullet holes.

"This child died in 1955 and people still have so much hatred," state Rep. Robert E. Huddleston tells ABC News. "Why do they feel the need to keep on killing him again and again?" He says the sign has been vandalized before, and the original version of it is believed to have been dumped in the river by vandals. Till's brutal murder—and the acquittal of his killers by an all-white jury—helped galvanize the civil rights movement. The fundraising page, which has now raised more than $18,000, is still open at the Till center, which has thanked supporters and said it plans to continue its work of telling the truth. (More Emmett Till stories.)