Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teen lynched in Mississippi

President Joe Biden is set to declare a national monument in honor of Emmett Till, a Black adolescent from Chicago who was kidnapped, brutally tortured, and killed in 1955, after being wrongly accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi. This announcement was made by a White House official on Saturday.

Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, spread across three locations in Illinois and Mississippi, the official shared, opting to remain anonymous as the announcement was yet to be made public officially. The proclamation will coincide with the anniversary of Emmett Till’s birth in 1941.

The planned monument will commemorate significant locations relating to the life and tragic death of Till at 14, the subsequent acquittal of his white murderers, and the activism of his mother, which played a crucial role in catalyzing the civil rights movement. Till’s mother insisted on an open-casket funeral, allowing the world to witness the savage brutality her son had suffered, with Jet magazine publishing photos of his body.

The timing of Biden’s decision is noteworthy, given the ongoing nationwide debate around racial issues. Conservative leaders are challenging the teaching of slavery and Black history in public schools and questioning the integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in higher education and corporate environments.

Vice President Kamala Harris recently condemned a revised Black history curriculum in Florida that suggested that enslaved individuals benefited from the skills they acquired from their oppressors. This curriculum was approved by the Florida Board of Education to meet legislation enacted by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential contender who alleges that public schools are engaging in liberal indoctrination.

The memorial dedicated to Till and his mother will feature three separate sites across Illinois and Mississippi, one of which is Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, a traditionally Black neighborhood in the south of Chicago, where thousands gathered to mourn Till’s death in 1955.

The Mississippi portions of the monument will include Graball Landing, where it is believed Till’s disfigured body was retrieved from the Tallahatchie River, and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, the place where Till’s murderers were tried and subsequently acquitted by an all-white jury.

Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi when Carolyn Bryant Donham, a local store worker, claimed that the 14-year-old Till whistled and made unsolicited sexual advances towards her. Following this allegation, Till was kidnapped and days later, his corpse was discovered in the Tallahatchie River, having been shot and sunk with a cotton gin fan.

Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, two white men, were tried for Till’s murder a month later, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. They later confessed to the murder in a paid interview with Look magazine. Bryant was married to Donham in 1955.

This will be the fourth monument that Biden has established since his presidency began in 2021.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) about Emmett Till National Monument

More about Emmett Till National Monument

• Emmett Till Biography
• Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement
• Emmett Till’s Legacy
• President Joe Biden’s Presidency Milestones
• Emmett Till’s open-casket funeral
• The Civil Rights Movement