Mississippi Burning relived with exhumation

US FEDERAL investigators have unearthed a concrete vault containing Emmett Till’s casket at a suburban Chicago, Illinois cemetery, hoping to find clues into his 1955 slaying in Mississippi that became a key event in the civil rights movement and inspired the movie Mississippi Burning.

The muddy cement vault was loaded onto a flatbed truck and headed to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office, where an autopsy was planned. No autopsy was performed when the 14-year-old black Chicagoan was killed.

"One purpose of this is to positively identify the remains and dispel any rumours as to whether it is truly Emmett Till or not," FBI spokesman Frank Bochte said. A second reason, he said, is to "see if any further evidence can be looked at to help Mississippi officials bring additional charges, if warranted".

The US Justice Department announced last year it would reopen a probe into Till's slaying, saying it was triggered by several pieces of information and a documentary by New York filmmaker Keith Beauchamp.

Till, who was raised in Chicago, was abducted from his uncle's home in the tiny Mississippi Delta community of Money on August 28, 1955, reportedly for whistling at a white woman. His mutilated body was found three days later in the Tallahatchie River. Till's mother insisted her son's body be displayed in an open casket forcing the nation to see the brutality directed at blacks in the South. The slaying helped galvanise the civil rights movement. Two white men charged with Till's murder store owner Roy Bryant and his half brother JW Milam were acquitted by an all-white jury but later confessed to Look magazine. They have since died.