U.S. President Joe Biden on July 25 — what should have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday — signed a proclamation creating the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument.
Till, a Black Chicago native, was 14 years old in 1955 when at least two white men lynched him in segregated Mississippi after a white woman accused him of flirting with her. Nobody was held legally accountable for Till’s murder, a tragedy that helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement.
“We should know … the truth of who we are as a nation,” Biden said. “… For only with truth comes healing, justice, repair, and another step forward toward forming a more perfect union.”
Emmett’s funeral, which took place at the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago September 3, attracted more than 125,000 people. The national monument will comprise three historic sites:
Graball Landing near Glendora, Mississippi, where authorities found Till’s mutilated body. Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Mamie Till-Mobley held an open-casket funeral for her son to “let the people see what I’ve seen.”
The Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where two of Till’s killers were put on trial. An all-white jury acquitted the killers, who later admitted to lynching Till.
“As patriots, we know that we must remember and teach our full history, even when it is painful — especially when it is painful,” Vice President Harris said at the proclamation signing.
