CHICAGO - Seventy years ago today, 14-year-old Emmett Till from Bronzeville was kidnapped, beaten, and lynched in Mississippi .

What we know:

People gathered at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip on Thursday to lay flowers on his grave and his mother Mamie’s.

In 1955, two white men dragged Till from his bed, tortured him, shot him, and dumped his body in the Tallahatchie River with a cotton gin fan tied around his neck. An all-white jury set them free.

Mamie Till insisted on an open casket, so the world could see what had been done to her son. Thousands packed Roberts Temple Church in Bronzeville for his funeral, a church that is now a national landmark.

What they're saying:

One speaker said Mamie’s courage is what keeps her son’s memory alive.

"When the casket came open, and she sa

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