US RE-INVESTIGATES A CRIME AFTER 63 YEARS

The federal government has quietly revived its investigation into the murder of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old African-American boy whose abduction and killing in 1955 remains among the starkest and most searing examples of racial violence in the South.

In a report submitted to Congress in late March, the Department of Justice said it had reopened its inquiry “based upon the discovery of new information,” but it did not elaborate. The government has not announced any new charges in connection with its investigation, and it is unclear whether prosecutors will ultimately be able to bring a case against anyone.

But the Justice Department’s decision to devote new attention to the case is a demonstration of how deeply the episode resonates more than 60 years after Till was killed in rural Mississippi and photographs of his mutilated body were published, so staggering the nation that the case is now seen as a catalyst for the civil rights movement.