Ole Miss students posed with guns in front of a shot-up Emmett Till memorial — now they face a possible civil-rights investigation

Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting/ProPublica

• Three students at the University of Mississippi have been suspended from their fraternity after the publication of a photo of them posing with guns in front of a memorial for Emmett Till.
• It is not clear whether the fraternity students shot the sign or are simply posing before it, but the photo may still prompt an investigation by the Justice Department.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

OXFORD, Miss. — Three University of Mississippi students have been suspended from their fraternity house and face possible investigation by the Department of Justice after posing with guns in front of a bullet-riddled sign honoring slain civil rights icon Emmett Till.

One of the students posted a photo to his private Instagram account in March showing the trio in front of a roadside plaque commemorating the site where Till's body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River. The 14-year-old black youth was tortured and murdered in August 1955. An all-white, all-male jury acquitted two white men accused of the slaying.See the rest of the story at Business Insider

NOW WATCH: Here's where the most hate crimes occur in the US — it’s not where you think

See Also:

• A University of Mississippi student charged with murder in relation to death of fellow student Ally Kostial
• How tough early lessons in Brooklyn made Bernie Sanders into the politician he is now
• Rhetoric used by Trump in widely-condemned tweets might be considered illegal in workplaces

SEE ALSO: A sign memorializing 14-year-old Emmett Till, whose lynching death helped spark the civil rights movement, has been shot up for a second time