Till casket could be sent to Miss. museum

PHILADELPHIA, Miss., July 16 (UPI) -- A casket that once held slain civil rights figure Emmett Till should be relocated to a civil rights museum in Philadelphia, Miss., a California lawmaker.

A spokesman for California State Assemblywoman Wilmer Amina Carter, who who has roots in Mississippi, said she would like to see the glass-topped viewing casket on display at the still-being-planned museum, the Chicago SouthtownStar said Thursday.

The casket is what Till was buried in after the 14-year-old black Chicago native was lynched in 1955 in Money, Miss., for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Till's slaying was regarded as a spark for the civil right's movement.

After the U.S. Justice Department reopened Till's case, the casket was exhumed in 2005 and the slain teen was reburied in a new casket.

The original casket was found last week, discarded in a storage room at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill., during an investigation into an alleged grave-reselling plot by cemetery workers. Four cemetery employees have been charged.