Emmett Till Victims' Compensation Fund Proposed Again in Mississippi

Ellie Dahmer, whose husband was killed by the Ku Klux Klan in the 1960s, would be eligible to receive monetary compensation under proposed legislation in the Mississippi Senate. The bill by Sen. Johnnie Walls, D-Greenville, would create the Emmett Louis Till Victims' Compensation Fund. It is named after the 14-year-old who was murdered in Mississippi in 1955, supposedly for whistling at a white woman. The bill provides compensation - up to $100,000 - to be shared by the lawful survivors of a victim of racially motivated crimes that occurred between 1945 and 1970. Walls has filed the bill, or similar legislation, every year since 1997. Each year, it dies. "Somebody might see the importance of it," Walls said. "The lynchings that occurred in Mississippi... state officials basically turned their heads. People were not punished for it. The idea is to bring some kind of acknowledgment to the issue and closure to the issue." There's the off-chance that bill could be bolstered by the renewed interest in solving decades-old civil rights murders. Earlier this month, reputed Ku Klux Klansman Edgar Ray Killen was charged with murder in the 1964 deaths of three civil rights workers in Neshoba County, and the Justice Department in June announced the reopening of the Till case. Walls also was encouraged by legislative action in 2004 to create the Holocaust Commission with the goal of educating Mississippians about the deaths of millions of Jewish people in Nazi concentration camps during World War II. era. [more