(CNN) A bullet-riddled memorial sign for Emmett Till at the center of a photo showing three white University of Mississippi students posing with guns is now gone.

It has been vandalized multiple times over the years and, in a few months, the sign will be replaced again -- this time with a bulletproof marker.

The sign was placed near the spot where Till's body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in 1955. The 14-year-old African American was tortured and killed by two white men after accusations that he flirted with a white woman. His death became an important catalyst in the civil rights movement.

Patrick Weems, the executive director of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission , said the group began to mark every site that was part of Emmett's story after community leaders offered his family an apology for the first time about 10 years ago.

"For 50 years our community didn't want to talk about Emmett Till, they just wanted to forget it," Weems said.

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