Wooden crates have played a significant role in Black history, particularly in the context of the Civil Rights Movement. One famous example is the story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old African American boy who was brutally lynched in Mississippi in 1955 after it was falsely claimed he had whistled at a white woman. Till's body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River weighted down by a 75-pound cotton gin fan tied to his neck with barbed wire. The fan had been taken from a wooden crate used to ship cotton.

The image of the wooden crate and the horrific murder of Emmett Till sparked outrage across the country and helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement. Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open casket funeral to show the world the brutality her son had suffered. The heart-wrenching photographs of Till's mutilated body published in Jet magazine brought the reality of racial violence in the South to the forefront of national consciousness.

The wooden crate, a symbol of the systemic racism and violence faced by Black Americans, serves as a reminder of the injustices that have plagued the nation's history and the resilience of those who have fought for equality and justice. It represents the deep scars of racism and the ongoing struggle for civil rights and racial justice in America.