diane: 30-year-old patrick weems grew up in mississippi. patrick weems: and it wasn't until i was 18 and i took a specific course on african-american studies that i learned about emmett till. when i learned about what happened, the injustices, but also that young people made change, it compelled me to want to be a part of that change, too. diane: determined, patrick set about the work of preserving the mississippi courtroom at the center of the story and the task of making amends. patrick weems: it was here in this courtroom that two men got off for murder. and so, we decided that we needed to begin by apologizing to the till family before we could begin with our museum. out of that apology, we decided to restore the courthouse back to the way it looked in 1955 and open up the emmett till interpretive center. diane: that was 10 years ago when, as a 20-year-old college student at ole miss, patrick took the lead in seeking racial reconciliation. patrick weems: so, in 1955, carolyn bryant told the sensationalized story, and she did it to kind