Two years on from Chicago City Council’s decision to designate The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley House a landmark, Emmett Till will now be honored with federally-protected National Monuments in both Chicago and Mississippi.
Yesterday, July 25, on what would have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday, Biden was joined by members of Till’s family and introduced by Till’s younger cousin, best friend, and witness to his abduction, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. at the White House where he signed a proclamation to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi.
“Back then, in the darkness, I could never imagine a moment like this, standing in the light of wisdom, grace, and deliverance,” said Rev. Parker Jr.
The Chicago monument will be established at the Roberts Temple Church of Christ in Bronzeville on Chicago’s South Side. The church, where thousands gathered to mourn Till’s death at an open casket funeral, will receive funding to restore the church, ensure its preservation, and build a visitor center.
In Mississippi meanwhile, two monument sites will be established at the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse where Till’s killers were wrongfully acquitted by an all-white jury, and at Graball Landing in Glendora where Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River.
“The new monument will protect places that tell the story of Emmett Till’s too-short life and racially motivated murder, the unjust acquittal of his murderers, and the activism of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who courageously brought the world’s attention to the brutal injustices and racism of the time, catalyzing the civil rights movement,” said a White House official.
Born and raised in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood, 14-year-old African American Emmett Till was abducted, tortured, and murdered on a family trip to Mississippi in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman.
The brutality of his murder, and the acquittal of the two men who later, protected against double jeopardy, admitted to killing him, became a symbol of the injustices suffered by blacks in the United States.
Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open-casket funeral to show the world what had happened to her son and demanded the photographs be published in Chicago-based Black publications like Jet Magazine and The Chicago Defender. Sparking outcry Till’s murder and his mother’s actions influenced the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s becoming a turning point in history.
The full proclamation can be found at www.whitehouse.gov.
[Featured image from Getty Images]