On Tuesday, US President Joe Biden established a national monument in honor of Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Bobley. The announcement came on July 25th, which would have been the 82nd birthday of Emmett Till. Named the “Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Bobley National Monument”, it will be managed by the National Park Services.
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black boy who was tortured and lynched by white men in 1955. The act occurred after a white woman in Mississippi had accused Till of molesting her. An all-white jury later acquitted the men of the murder. Emmett Till became one of the most important names in America’s Civil Rights movements, signifying the racial injustices faced by the Black community in the country.
The national monument will comprise of three sites – one in Chicago and two in Mississippi. In Chicago, Till’s hometown, the monument will be at the Roberts Temple Church of God In Christ. This was the church where Till’s funeral was held, when his mother Mamie Till-Bobley famously asked for an open-casket funeral for the world to see her mutilated kid. The other two monuments are in Mississippi. The first is at Graball Landing, where Till’s body was first found. The other is at Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, where Till’s murderers were acquitted.
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In recent years, Emmett Till has re-emerged as a symbol of the long history of racial injustices in America. In 2022, Till and his mother were posthumously granted the Congressional Gold Medal. The same year, Congress passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act.
