Emmett Till Casket Headed to Smithsonian in 2015

Till's casket to be part of Smithsonian Institution's planned National Museum of African American History and Culture

At least one good thing came out of the Burr Oak Cemetery mess.

The casket that once held the body of lynching victim Emmett Till will head to the Smithsonian Institution's planned National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington when it opens in 2015.

The glass-topped casket held the 14-year-old Chicagoan's mutilated body for 50 years after his 1955 slaying in Mississippi for allegedly whistling at a white woman. Till's body was exhumed from Burr Oak Cemetery in suburban Alsip in 2005 when the FBI tried to find possible accomplices in the killing.

Till was reburied in a new casket, and the original was found rusting in a shed at Burr Oak recently during investigation of an alleged grave-reselling scandal,

Museum officials and members of Tills family were expected to announce the casket's donation just before a memorial ceremony Friday to commemorate 54 years since Till's murder.

Full Coverage:  Desecration at Burr Oak Cemetery

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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