Political Quotes

“one of the bills Republicans are stopping is the Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act, which I cosponsored. This is one of the key civil rights bills of this Congress, creating new positions at the Department of Justice in the Civil Rights Division and in the FBI to strengthen the Government's ability to investigate and prosecute race-based murders that took place in our country before 1970 and which have gone unsolved. The bill would also create a grant program for State and local prosecutors for additional resources to pursue these heinous crimes. The story of Emmett Till is a legend in America--and a sad legend. It was one of the most infamous acts of racial violence in our Nation's history. A 14-year-old African American from the city of Chicago, which I am honored to represent, was murdered in 1955 when he was visiting in Mississippi and allegedly flirted with a White woman in a grocery store. His body was found floating in the Tallahatchie River with a 70-pound gin mill fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. Emmett Till's body was returned to Chicago, and his mother, despite her grief, insisted that there be a public display of his mutilated corpse. It was a transforming moment in American racial history. Friends of mine who are African American said that was the moment when they decided they couldn't take it anymore. Emmett Till's killers were never brought to justice. They were prosecuted and acquitted by an all-White jury.”