New National Monument Helps Tell a More Complete Civil Rights Story Mississippi, Illinois
CASE STUDY
In summer 2023, President Joe Biden established the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument making it the country’s 425th national park unit. The new national monument includes sites in the Mississippi Delta and Chicago that were central to Emmett Till’s lynching and funeral, the acquittal of his murderers, and the subsequent activism by his mother Mamie Till-Mobley.
accountable for Emmett’s death.
Dignitaries meet with local officials and community members at the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center in Glendora, MS. (DOI)
The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument includes Graball Landing in Glendora, Mississippi, the area that is believed to be the site where Emmett’s brutalized body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River; Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, Illinois, the site of his widely attended funeral; and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where the murderers were tried and acquitted. In addition to designating these three sites as a new national monument, the National Park Service (NPS) will develop a plan in consultation with local communities, organizations, and the public to support the interpretation and preservation of other key sites in Illinois and Mississippi that help tell the story of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley. This may include the Glendora Cotton Gin (currently known as the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center), Mound Bayou, the site of the Tutwiler Funeral Home, and the Emmett Till Boyhood Home. Many partners, including the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, the National Park Foundation, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, Tallahatchie County, and Walker Sturdivant were instrumental in the process of preparing properties for inclusion in the National Park System. NPS will manage the property, and visitor services will be provided by park rangers at Pullman National Historical Park in Chicago and in partnership with the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Mississippi. Information about visiting and ranger-led programs are available on the website at www.nps.gov/TILL.
“President Biden’s establishment of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument further cements Emmett and Mamie’s roles as heroes in America’s enduring pursuit of ‘ a more perfect Union,’ and marks an important step in telling a more complete story of the African American struggle for civil rights,” NPS Director Chuck Sams said. “Protecting these sites and stories helps ensure that the sacrifices borne by Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley will live on in public memory.”
Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was lynched on August 28, 1955, for reportedly whistling at a white woman while visiting relatives in Mississippi. His mother’s decision to have an open-casket funeral rocked the nation and helped spur the modern civil rights movement. Efforts by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Black press, and others to help Ms. Till- Mobley investigate and amplify her son’s story caused the world to bear witness to the racially motivated violence and injustice that many Black people endured in the Jim Crow South. An all-white, all-male jury was selected and ultimately acquitted Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam. They later confessed to their crimes in a paid interview. No one was ever held legally
Photograph of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley, ca. 1954 (NAACP Records, Library of Congress)
Center: Graball Landing on the Tallahatchie River in Glendora, MS (Jay D. Johnson/NPS) Bottom: Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, MS (Jay D. Johnson/NPS)
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