One of the most notorious crimes in America's history was the lynching of Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old African-American boy in Mississippi, during the summer of 1955 after being accused of whistling at a white woman.
To this day, the sign marking where Till's body was pulled from the river displays bullet holes in a flagrant and startling display of how much work the US still needs to do to eradicate the fatal racism among its population. Click through this gallery for everything you need to know about the incident credited with sparking the modern civil rights movement, and why the case, though officially closed, remains open.