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Miss. highway may be named for Emmett Till

JACKSON, Miss., Feb. 11 (UPI) -- The Mississippi Senate has approved a measure renaming a section of highway for Emmett Till, the 14-year old black youth killed by bigots in 1955.

Under the measure, which must still pass the state House, a section of U.S. Route 49 between Leflore and Tallahatchie counties would be renamed the Emmett Till Memorial Highway in honor of the youth, who was beaten to death after purportedly whistling at a white woman.

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The legislation also names a portion of Mississippi State Route 19 near Philadelphia, Miss., for James Cheney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, who were killed by the Ku Klux Klan while working to register black Mississippi voters in the summer of 1964.

A reputed former Klan member, Edgar Ray Killan, was recently indicted on state charges in the case, which was the subject of the film "Mississippi Burning." State investigators also recently moved to reopen the Till case, the Jackson (Miss.) Clarion-Ledger said Friday.

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