Emmett Till
The Mississippi lynching of 14-year-old Till became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement when his mother insisted on an open-casket funeral in their hometown of Chicago.
This year marks nearly seven decades since the 14-year-old boy from the South Side was killed in Mississippi. Here’s a look at how the Sun-Times covered his death in 1955, including Mamie Till Bradley’s decision to show the world the brutality he endured at the hands of white supremacists.
Wheeler Parker, minister of a suburban Argo church, talks about Emmett Till’s 1955 lynching and brutal murder by white supremacists in Mississippi — and what triggered it.
Roberts Temple Church, at 40th and State streets, will preserve the site where Till’s body was displayed in an open casket and launched the modern Civil Rights Movement.
‘What Emmett did, he gave up a lot, but it helped a lot of people. And he still speaks from the grave,’ Emmett Till’s cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., who witnessed Till being kidnapped, told the Sun-Times.
“These places contain historic objects that illuminate the complicated fabric of our Nation and the injustice and inequality that Black people continue to experience today,” President Joe Biden said in signing the proclamation Tuesday.
The annual ice cream social to celebrate Emmett Till’s birthday also marked the opening of an interactive art installation, titled “Be Careful, I Always Am,” by Chicago-born artist Germane Barnes.
A White House official said Biden will sign a proclamation Tuesday to establish the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Chicago and Mississippi.
More than a decade after scandal hit the historic cemetery, local advocates say there’s still much left to be desired, with wooden markers broken and rain causing Emmett Till’s grave to be constantly submerged.
Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, at 40th and State streets, is 101 years old.
Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. said Thursday, “It is up to all of us to be accountable to the challenges we still face in overcoming racial injustice.”
“Lynching is not a relic of the past,” said Vice President Kamala Harris.
The Emmett Till bill, championed by Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., makes lynching a federal hate crime.
Rep. Bobby Rush, in an Axios interview, said Paul wanted to do more than modify the measure — he was “trying to gut the bill.”
This Sun-Times editorial was published Sept. 27, 1955, just after the two men charged with brutally murdering 14-year-old Emmett Till were acquitted of the murder charge. The paper expressed disgust at the “nauseating” verdict. This is part of a 75-anniversary project highlighting decades of exceptional journalism.
This story was published on Sept. 8, 1955, when Emmett Till’s mother announced she would be going to Mississippi to testify at the trial of the two men who brutally murdered her teenage son. This is part of a 75-anniversary series highlighting decades of journalism coverage
This story on Emmett Till was published on Sept. 4, 1955, the day after thousands came to pay their respects at the funeral of the murdered teenager. Emmett’s mother’s insistence that his brutally beaten body be shown to the world was a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement. This is part of a 75-anniversary series highlighting decades of journalism coverage
This story was published the day after Emmett Till’s body was found beaten, bullet-pierced and weighed down with iron and barbed wire in the muddy waters of Mississippi’s Tallahatchie River on Thursday, Sept. 1, 1955. It is part of a 75th anniversary series highlighting decades of important journalism coverage.
This story was published on Sept. 2, 1955, when Emmett Till’s body arrived by train back in his hometown Chicago from Mississippi. The brutal murder of this teenager and his mother’s insistence that his brutally beaten body be shown to the world was a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement. This is part of a 75-anniversary series highlighting decades of journalism coverage.
This editorial was published on Sept. 2, 1955, when Emmett Till’s body arrived home by train to Chicago from Mississippi. Till’s brutal lynching murder and his mother’s insistence that the world not turn away from what was done to her son was a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement. This is part of a 75-anniversary series highlighting decades of journalism coverage
This story was originally published in the Chicago Daily News the day Emmett Till’s body was found beaten, bullet-pierced and weighed down with iron and barbed wire in the muddy waters of Mississippi’s Tallahatchie River on Wednesday, Aug. 31, 1955. It is part of a 75-anniversary series highlighting decades of important journalism coverage.