DC -- Natl Museum of American History -- Exhibit: Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice, and the Murder of Emmett Till:
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- Description of Pictures: Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice, and the Murder of Emmett Till
September 3, 2021 – October 5, 2021
During a visit to see his great uncle in Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, of Chicago, was brutally lynched on August 28, 1955. When his mutilated body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River, his mother insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago. Starting in 2008, the Emmett Till Memorial Commission erected nine historical markers to remember Till, but the signs have been stolen, riddled with bullets, or thrown in the river. This monthlong display of the defaced historical marker preserves the memory of Emmett Till while demonstrating the contested nature of racism’s violent legacy in America. The 317 bullet punctures further serve as a reminder that the racism that caused Till’s death still exists today and that his murderers were never truly brought to justice.
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- Specific picture descriptions: Photos above with "i" icons next to the bracketed sequence numbers (e.g. "[1] ") are described as follows:
- TILL_210906_011.JPG: River Site
This is the site where Till's body was removed from the river. It was then taken to Greenwood, MS. Then the body was sent back to Money, MS for burial. Via a phone call from Till's mother, "not to bury her son", the body was taken back to Greenwood. The body was then sent to Tutwiler, MS for final preparation to be sent to Chicago, IL.
- TILL_210906_021.JPG: The Politics of Memory
"I want to make sure that whoever did this knows that... [e]very time [this sign is] taken down, it's going back up."
-- Jerome "G" Little, October 30, 2008
History is an active battleground. 317 bullets pierced this sign, one of five Till markers that have been systematically attacked. The sign is part of an ongoing fight on the landscape over what is remembered or suppressed.
The Emmett Till Memorial Commission has replaced this sign three times in 11 years. These acts are not random vandalism. The calculated violence mimics attacks on Till's body and is intended to terrorize Black people.
Preservation can enact violence against Black communities when it suppresses or delegitimizes Black history. Owners of the property were Emmett Till crossed paths with his accuser received state historic preservation funds. They left the storefront dilapidated and instead restored a historically insignificant gas station next door.
- TILL_210906_033.JPG: Bryant's Grocery, 2015
An internationally recognized historic site lies in ruins. Emmett Till encountered his accuser inside the grocery store she and her husband owned in Money, Mississippi.
- TILL_210906_035.JPG: Defaced Markers
A new generation uses the markers to fight for justice. Black organizers walked this sign through the University of Mississippi campus, resting it at a confederate statue.
- TILL_210906_044.JPG: Reckoning with Remembrance:
History, Injustice, and the Murder of Emmett Till
"Emmett Till was my George Floyd. He was my Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor. . . . [H]e could easily have been me."
-- Congressman John Lewis, July 2020
Emmett Till
On August 20, 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley waved goodbye as her 14-year-old son Emmett, boarded a train to visit family in Mississippi. Just eight days later, her child was lynched. Two white men, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, kidnapped Emmett from his bed and forced him into the back of a track. They, along with others, later brutally beat, shot, and mutilated Emmett. His body was then thrown into the Tallahatchie River with a cotton gin fan tied around his neck with barbed wire. Emmett's offense was whistling at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant.
Mamie Till-Mobley made the decision to have an open casket funeral to "Let the people see what they did to my boy." Emmett's death sparked a revolution, galvanizing civil rights activists to act with courage, boldness, and determination.
Emmett and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, Christmas 1954
Emmett grew up in Summit, Illinois, where he was protected and nurtured by a robust community that knew him as a jokester.
- TILL_210906_050.JPG: Emmett Till Historical Marker
The racism that led to Emmett Till's murder endures. "Till signs have been stolen, thrown in the river, replaced, shot, replaced again, [and] shot again," historian Dave Tell writes.
- TILL_210906_060.JPG: Cover Up
The Black press mapped where a posse of men tortured Emmett Till. The white judge disregarded the evidence.
- TILL_210906_070.JPG: The Power of Collective Action
Like many growing up in Tallahatchie County in the 1950s and '60s, Jerome "G." Little didn't know that Emmett Till's history was intimately connected to his hometown. Returning after military service, Little organized in 1977 with six other Black men to address structural racism that limited African American access to water, employment, housing, healthcare, voting rights, and education. Their political agenda included preserving Black history.
Known as the "Magnificent Seven," they used the power of collective action over two decades to do what seemed impossible. They sued the county three times to force redistricting and create pathways for Black representation.
As a newly elected county official, Little founded the Emmett Till Memorial Commission. The group sought to save the local courthouse, to support the town, and establish a community center, to support the town's Black residents. Millions have gone to renovate the courthouse; the community center remains unfunded.
- TILL_210906_073.JPG: An Official Apology
In 2007 Tallahatchie County issued a formal apology for its "miscarriage of justice" in 1955. Till family members traveled to Mississippi to bear witness.
- TILL_210906_090.JPG: Anti-Black Violence Today
In 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley gave her son a version of a talk that Black parents in America still give their children today. She knew that simply being Black could get you killed. Before her fun-loving 14-year-old son boarded a train from Chicago to visit his uncle in Mississippi, she warned him of this fact.
Sixty-six years later, protestors still hold signs with Emmett Till's name, as targeted acts of anti-Black violence remain a daily threat. Black organizers radically expose the afterlife of slavery and Jim Crow found in systems like policing, mass incarceration, inequitable housing, education, healthcare, and environmental racism. Center Black Life and protest, Black activists are not just fighting for change: they are imagining the world anew -- a world where the joy of Black children like Till cannot be stomped out.
- TILL_210906_093.JPG: Creating New Futures
Activists and young people imagine new futures despite the persistence of anti-Black violence. Pictured here, a child leads protest chants weeks after George Floyd's murder in June 2020.
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