Canadian railroad could owe thousands to village linked to Emmett Till

GLENDORA, Miss. — Glendora Mayor Johnny B. Thomas walks on the bridge where two men tossed Emmett Till's lifeless body into the water below 62 years ago. This desolate spot, he says, is ground zero for the civil rights movement.

"This is where they dumped the body, here," Thomas says, as he points into Black Bayou, an appropriate name for a tributary of the Tallahatchie River that lacks any banks and where mighty oak trees float.

But as the country inched forward toward a goal of racial and economic justice, Glendora fell further and further behind, becoming one of the poorest communities in the country.

But an accounting error discovered about two years ago could mean close to $1 million for this struggling area — 10 times Glendora's annual budget.

Source: usatoday