Why We Imagine

Emmett Till is America’s son, born just outside of Chicago, Illinois. He was known by all as Bobo, living with his mother Mamie Till-Mobley and grandmother Alma Spearman in Argo.

In the summer of 1955, while visiting family in Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett visited a country store, Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market. He was heard whistling at a white woman, the store clerk, as corroborated by his cousin, the then-16-year-old Wheeler Parker. Days later, Till was abducted from his great-uncle’s home and brutally murdered by the woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, and Bryant’s half-brother, J. W. Milam. Till’s murderers faced an all-white, all-male jury, before which Till was falsely accused of assault against the clerk. The jury acquitted the men, who later confessed to the killing in a Look magazine interview.

Mamie Till-Mobley had the prophetic wisdom to understand that witnessing was central for American democracy. Her motto was “Let the world see.” She made the decision to hold an open-casket funeral "to let the world see what I've seen" when her son’s disfigured body was found at Graball Landing at the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi. More than 100,000 people filed past his casket in Chicago; the publication of his mutilated body in the black press—Jet, Ebony, and the Chicago Defender—stirred black communities nationally. No other outlets would show the images. That act of public witness is widely credited as a flashpoint for the modern Civil Rights Movement—invoked by figures from Rosa Parks to John Lewis to Muhammad Ali to Martin Luther King Jr., and echoed through the March on Washington, held on the eighth anniversary of Till's death.

We can let the world see. Yet is it enough today to let people see? The question today is what will make us all see the facts of history?

Nearly 70 years after his death, there has been resistance to honoring Till’s life. Since the first marker was erected in 2008, people have repeatedly stolen, defaced, or shot the memorial marker at the site where Till’s body was discovered, Graball Landing. In one instance, the marker was shot 317 times. A third marker was likewise riddled with bullets by University of Mississippi students in 2019. The current, fourth attempt to replace the marker to Emmett Till is bulletproof; it weighs 500 pounds, deliberately heavy, so that it cannot be easily desecrated.

New information emerged in 2017 that the shopkeeper had, years earlier, reportedly recanted the accusations she made against him, and as a result the Till case was reactivated by the U.S. Department of Justice. However, the shopkeeper then denied ever recanting and reasserted her testimony. While the renewed investigation did not lead to any prosecution, it did result in the Justice Department’s statement that “the government does not take the position that the state court testimony the woman gave in 1955 was truthful or accurate.”

In March 2022, President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, the first federal legislation in United States history to specifically make lynching a federal hate crime. Reverend and Dr. Parker were guests of President Biden at the White House for the signing of the act, coming after the failure of roughly 200 anti-lynching bills since 1900. On July 25, 2023, Till's 82nd birthday, he designated the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, encompassing the Tallahatchie courthouse, Graball Landing, and Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ. Roberts Temple is now under renovation led by Dr. Marvel Parker, supported by the Mellon Foundation and National Trust for Historic Preservation, with Dr. Parker and Reverend Parker continuing advocacy through the Till Institute and the Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. Foundation.

“It was like our mecca. People came from all over to this place to just worship.” – Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr.

Emmett's funeral marked a turning point in American history. Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on holding an open-casket wake to "let the world see what I've seen." She demanded her child's mutilated, lynched body be returned to Chicago and refused to let the violence done remain hidden or private, transforming private grief into public testimony. The one-day visitation at A.A. Rayner & Sons Funeral Home drew over 5,000 mourners. The service then moved to Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, which filled its 1,700-person capacity, while nearly 10,000 more gathered outside to listen over loudspeakers. Mamie delayed the burial so more mourners could view her son's body; ultimately, more than 100,000 people filed past his casket over three days. That act of witness launched the Civil Rights Movement as we know it. Roberts Temple was later declared a Chicago Landmark in 2006, and became part of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in 2023, preserving the site as a living testament.