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Feds reopen shocking 60-year-old Mississippi murder case

Emmett Till's death inspired New Orleans woman to take part in Civil Rights movement

The federal government has reopened the investigation into the 1955 lynching of a black teenager in rural Mississippi.

The shocking picture of a badly beaten and disfigured 14-year-old Emmett Till in his casket, helped ignite the Civil Rights movement.

His mother wanted the nation to see the brutality of his killers.

Emmett was visiting family in Mississippi when a white woman accused him of whistling at her and making sexual advances.

His mangled body was found days later in the Tallahatchie River.

"My heart was so broken I said how could they be that cruel and evil," New Orleans Civil Rights pioneer Rev. Marie Galatas Ortiz said.

Galatas Ortiz admits Emmett 's murder propelled her into a life of social activism.

"I thank God that he touched my heart with this Emmett Till thing because I probably wouldn't have been the activist that I am now," Galatas Ortiz said. "That started me off."

The U.S. Department of Justice opened a new inquiry into the case "after receiving new information." The agency has not released any further details.

Carolyn Bryant was a 21-year-old shopkeeper in Money, Mississippi, when she claimed Emmett grabbed her.

Her then-husband and another man were charged with Emmett's murder, but were later acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury.

In a new book, "The Blood of Emmett Till," Bryant admitted she made up the story.

Tulane University Associate Professor of History Roseanne Adderly said reopening the case is important.

"We don't really spend as much time as we need to, doing the kind of moral accounting and real facing of our history," Adderly said. "This is one of thousands, tens of thousands of horrific acts and its bigger than this one case."

Galatas Ortiz said she and many others never stopped praying that the truth will eventually be revealed about who killed Emmett.

"It was a monumental hurt in my heart and to many other black women and I'm sure some white folks, too, across this nation," Galatas Ortiz said.

The two men originally charged with Emmett's death later told a journalist they did, in fact, kill him.

They died without being convicted.

Paul Murphy can be reached at pmurphy@wwltv.com.

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