Donations pour in after white nationalist group films in front of Emmett Till memorial

Ryan W. Miller | USA TODAY

Show Caption Hide Caption White supremacist hate group filmed at Emmett Till memorial A neo-Confederate group was caught on security camera filming a video in front of a memorial dedicated to Emmett Till.

A group of white nationalists were caught on camera filming at a memorial for Emmett Till, a 14-year-old who was lynched in the 1950s, before they ran away at the sound of security alarms.

In response, donations have poured in from people around the country in effort to preserve Till's memory, said Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission.

On Monday, Weems said $10,000 in donations had come in since Saturday's incident.

"This group came out there to divide us...but they only made our effort stronger," Weems said. "We have had support from all around the country of people helping us out. Every time something like this happens, we get another $10,000 to help us."

It weighs 500 pounds: Bulletproof memorial to Mississippi civil rights icon Emmett Till replaces vandalized sign

Video from the Mississippi memorial shows the group, carrying flags of a neo-Confederate group, as they apparently filmed at the site.

One of the men in the video can be heard saying the memorial, "represents the civil rights movement for blacks." "What we want to know is, where are all the white people?" he says.

Weems told The Associated Press the incident occurred Saturday.

"They basically showed a group of people coming out and filming what looked to be some kind of propaganda video at the historic marker," he told the AP.

The white flag with a black cross is associated with the League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center says is a hate group.

The memorial marks the site where Till's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River after he was kidnapped, beaten and killed in 1955. Till allegedly whistled at a white woman, and an all-white jury acquitted two white men of murder charges.

Till's memorial got an enhanced security system earlier this year after the last sign was riddled with bullets. Multiple other signs at the site have also been vandalized since the first marker was placed in 2008.

In August 2018, after a bullet-riddled Emmett Till sign was replaced, it was shot up again.

In 2016 and again in 2017, a historical sign marking where Till’s body was found in the Tallahatchie River in 1955 was riddled with bullets.

Dedicated Oct. 19, the new memorial features a camera system and alarms as well as a 500-pound steel sign with a glass bulletproof front, Weems said.

Contributing: The Associated Press; Jimmie E. Gates, Mississippi Clarion Ledger