Gun Used in Emmett Till’s 1955 Lynching Unveiled at Mississippi Museum

JACKSON, Miss. - On the 70th anniversary of Emmett Till’s brutal murder, the Mississippi Department of Archives and History today unveiled the .45-caliber pistol used to kill the 14-year-old Chicago teenager, bringing a painful chapter of civil-rights history into public view.

The firearm, once owned by John William “J.W.” Milam-who, alongside Roy Bryant, kidnapped, tortured and shot Till on Aug. 28, 1955-was displayed at a news conference Thursday at the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum. Museum director Michael Morris said the exhibit offers visitors “a more comprehensive account of what transpired” and honors Till’s enduring legacy of inspiring social change.¹

Nan Prince, director of collections at the Archives and History department, described the pistol and its leather holster as “a difficult item to confront,” emphasizing the artifact’s power to convey both historical truth and the hatred that motivated the crime.² The weapon’s serial number was authenticated against FBI records, and it had been held anonymously by a local Delta family before donation.³

Wheeler Parker Jr., Till’s cousin and only surviving witness to the abduction, recalled the moment Milam and Bryant burst into his great-uncle’s home with the pistol and a flashlight. “I just closed my eyes, expecting to be shot,” Parker said, adding that Till’s death remains “a grim narrative,” but insisting that “we must tell the story” to prevent erasure of America’s darkest moments.⁴

Till’s open-casket funeral, insisted upon by his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, exposed the nation to the brutality endured by Black Americans under Jim Crow segregation. Thousands attended the service in Chicago, and photographs of his mutilated body galvanized the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement.⁵

The museum plans to include the gun in a permanent Emmett Till exhibit alongside documents recently released by the Civil Rights Cold Case Records Review Board. Morris hopes the installation will prompt reflection on how Till’s story continues to shape the fight for justice and equality.⁶