On what would have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday, President Joe Biden signed a proclamation designating a monument in honor of his tragic murder and the profound courage of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley.
Emmett Till was just 14 years old when in 1955, two White men, Roy Bryant, and J.W. Milam, kidnapped, mutilated, and lynched him for allegedly whistling at a White woman. Till, a native of Chicago, was visiting with family in Mississippi at the time.
An all-White jury acquitted Bryant and Milam. The two would eventually admit to the murder in Look Magazine, adding insult to barbaric injury and injustice.
Displaying unbelievable courage in the face of heartbreak, Till-Mobley insisted that her son’s casket remain open during the funeral so the world could bear witness to the grotesque acts of racial hatred. The publication of Till’s mutilated body in Jet Magazine shook the nation and helped galvanize a movement for racial justice.