Museum staff escorted a visitor into a basement room to reveal J.W. Milam's faded Army-issue .45 pistol, stamped United States Property and bearing acquisition stickers and carved initials. The FBI believes that gun fired the fatal shot that killed Emmett Till. Museum staff noted an unusually strong emotional reaction to the artifact. The gun shows signs of violent use: the slide sights were mashed and twisted and the FBI file noted Till was pistol-whipped. The museum installed the firearm on the 70th anniversary of Till's murder near a permanent exhibit and a rotunda listing lynching victims.
The lights clicked and there it was, faded blueish nickel, Army issue, stamped United States Property. One tiny sticker on the clip read 2025.48.1: the first item in the 48th acquisition of the year. Another sticker, on the holster, read 2025.48.2. Someone, likely Milam, had carved the initials J. M. into the leather, along with Tippo, the Delta town where his family was living when he went off to fight the Germans. Prince turned the gun over. I never touched it. "It gives you the heebie-jeebies," I muttered. "I've been in this field a long time," she said quietly. "I've never had an artifact affect me like this."
She placed it carefully on a thick piece of museum foam. The FBI's file said that Emmett Till had been pistol-whipped before he was killed. I bent over the gun. The sights on the back of the slide had been violently mashed down and twisted, as if someone had used the gun as a hammer.
Prince walked me up to the museum floor and showed me the permanent exhibit on Till's murder, where the gun will sit starting today, the 70th anniversary of the killing. A video, narrated by Oprah Winfrey, told the story of Till's mother's courage as two visitors listened in the dark. A rotunda nearby displayed the names of lynching victims, including Medgar Evers and Emmett Till. I counted 14 empty spaces where more names could be added.
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