President Biden Creates Monument to Honor Emmett Till and His Mother’s Activism
In a significant move to honor the legacy of Emmett Till and his mother, President Joe Biden has announced the creation of a monument that will protect the important sites associated with their lives. The monument aims to highlight the impact of Till’s brutal murder at the age of 14, the subsequent acquittal of his white killers, and his mother’s relentless activism in seeking justice.
Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, played a pivotal role in galvanizing the Civil Rights Movement. Her decision to have an open casket funeral, which revealed the gruesome extent of her son’s brutality, shocked the nation. Jet magazine’s publication of photographs depicting Till’s mutilated body further amplified the outrage, becoming a catalyst for the fight for civil rights.
President Biden’s decision to create the monument comes at a time of increasing racial tensions in the United States. Conservative leaders have been pushing back against the teaching of slavery and Black history in public schools, as well as efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion across various domains.
Vice President Kamala Harris recently criticized a revised Black history curriculum in Florida, which controversially suggests that enslaved people benefited from the skills they learned from their oppressors. Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis, who is a Republican presidential candidate, has defended the curriculum, accusing public schools of liberal indoctrination.
The monument honoring Till and his mother will encompass three sites across Illinois and Mississippi. In Illinois, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, a historically Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side, will be included. This church was the site of thousands of mourners who gathered to pay their respects to Emmett Till in September 1955.
In Mississippi, the monument will encompass Graball Landing, believed to be the location where Till’s mutilated body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River. Additionally, the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi will be part of the monument. This courthouse was where Till’s killers were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury.
The tragic events leading to Till’s murder unfolded when Carolyn Bryant Donham, a store employee in the small community of Money, Mississippi, accused the 14-year-old Till of making sexual advances towards her. Soon after, Till was abducted, shot, and his body was disposed of in the Tallahatchie River, weighted down with a cotton gin fan.
Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, both white men, were tried on murder charges but were acquitted by the all-white jury. However, months later, they confessed to killing Till in a paid interview with Look magazine. Carolyn Bryant Donham, who was married to Roy Bryant in 1955, passed away earlier this year.
This monument to Till and his mother is the fourth that President Biden has established since taking office in 2021 and serves as another tribute to the lasting impact of their story. During Black History Month, Biden hosted a screening of the film “Till,” a powerful drama that depicts Till’s lynching.
In March 2022, President Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law, which had been under consideration by Congress for more than 120 years. While the Justice Department announced the closure of its investigation into Till’s killing in December 2021, the creation of this monument demonstrates the ongoing commitment to remember the legacy of Emmett Till and the fight for racial justice in the United States.