Sharpton: Meeting with PepsiCo, members of Emmett Till’s family ‘positive’

NEW YORK, N.Y. – The Rev. Al Sharpton says a meeting he held with PepsiCo Inc. officlals and members of Emmett Till’s family was “positive.”

Sharpton says in a statement PepsiCo officials apologized to the Till family at the Wednesday morning meeting at company headquarters in Purchase.

PepsiCo and Lil Wayne ended their commercial relationship last week over vulgar lyrics the rapper included in a song that referenced Till, a black teen who became a civil rights icon after being killed while visiting Mississippi. But Sharpton urged company officials and the family to meet this week anyway to discuss the growing controversy that also included a Mountain Dew now-pulled commercial by Odd Future’s Tyler, the Creator.

Sharpton says his National Action Network and the Till family will work together to help rappers become “more engaged and conscientious of civil rights history.”