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Emmett Till National Monument Established by President Biden

from July 26, 2023

from July 26, 2023, page 19

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In Mississippi, the monument will include Graball Landing, which is believed to be the site where Emmett Till’s brutalized body was pulled from Tallahatchie River.

The third site is the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Emmett Till’s murderers were tried by an all-white jury and wrongfully acquitted.

This will be the President’s fourth new national monument since taking office. The designation reflects the Biden-Harris administration’s work to advance civil rights and commitment to protecting places that help tell a more complete story of our nation’s history.

On Monday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre announced President Biden’s intention to sign a proclamation to establish a national monument in honor of Emmett Till. Speaking at a press briefing, Jean-Pierre said:

On the 82nd anniversary of Emmett Till’s birth, President Biden will sign a proclamation to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley National Monument in Illinois and also in Mississippi.

The new monument will protect places that tell the story of Emmett Till’s too-short life and racially motivated murder, the unjust acquittal of his murderers, and the activism of his mother, Mamie Till Mobley, who courageously brought the world’s attention to the brutal injustices and racism of the time, catalyzing the Civil Rights Movement. The monument will include three separate cities in two states, as I mentioned, including Roberts Temple Church in [of] God in Christ in Bronzeville, a historically Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side where thousands of people gathered to mourn and bear witness to Emmett Till’s death in September of 1955.

And it comes at an important moment — let’s not forget what we have seen these past several months — as we’ve witnessed extreme officials in Florida and across the country lie about American history. The most recent example: shamefully — shamefully promoting a lie that enslaved people actually benefited from slavery. It’s inaccurate, insulting. It’s hurtful and prevents an honest account — an honest account of our nation’s history.

Emmett Till was an African American boy who was abducted, tortured, and lynched in Mississippi in 1955 at the age of 14, after being accused of offending a white woman, Carolyn Bryant, in her family’s grocery store. The brutality of his murder and the acquittal of his killers drew attention to the long history of violent persecution of African Americans in the United States. Till posthumously became an icon of the civil rights movement. Director Chinonye Chukwu introduced “Till” in 2022, based on the true story of Mamie Till-Bradley, an educator and activist who pursued justice after the murder of her 14-year-old son Emmett in August 1955.

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