Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument

08/25/2025

This month marks the 70th anniversary of Emmett Louis Till’s kidnapping and murder which, along with Mamie Till-Mobley’s decision to “let the world see” an open-casket at his funeral, served as a catalyst for the modern civil rights movement. From Aug. 28-30, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and a number of other partners are hosting a series of events and activities to honor the life and legacy of Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley at several locations throughout the Mississippi Delta. Additional information about these events and activities can be found here: https://www.emmett-till.org/

To provide additional opportunities for visitor access during the 70th anniversary commemoration, the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument interpretive center in Sumner, MS, will have expanded operating hours and be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Thursday, August 28 through Saturday, August 30.

07/25/2025

Chicago Honors Emmett Till Day in Illinois.

Emmett Till would be 84 years old today but in 1955, when he was just 14 years old, he was murdered in an act of racial violence. The courage of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley in sharing her private pain over the loss of her child became a powerful catalyst for the 1960's U.S. Civil Rights Movement.

An event was held Friday morning to celebrate the life and legacy of Emmett Till at the location of his wake -- Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ (COGIC) in Chicago, Illinois. The event also celebrated the Phase One completion of the restoration of the front facade of the church to a 1955 appearance. This marks another important step in preserving and sharing a pivotal Civil Rights story of the 20th century.

In attendance: Pastor Clevan Wardlow, Jr. and Bishop Edwin Walker — Northern Illinois Jurisdiction of COGIC, Roberts Temple COGIC, Roberts Family, Till Family, Till Institute, National Park Service, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Berglund Construction, Arda (Bauer Latoza Studio), Mass Design.

Image: A photo of the new brickwork adorning Roberts Temple COGIC.
Image Credit: NPS Image

08/29/2024

Remembering Emmett Till, whose brutal lynching 69 years ago helped inspire the modern civil rights movement.

Image: A photo card of the muddy Tallahatchie River lined with trees on the far bank includes the headline, “Remembering Emmett Till, July 25, 1941 – August 28, 1955” with a black and white portrait insert of Emmett Till wearing a fedora hat; and a quotation by Mamie Till-Mobley, mother of Emmett Till, which reads, “It is not that I dwell in the past. But the past shapes the way we are in the present and the way we will become what we are destined to become.”

07/25/2024

On this special day, we remember Emmett Louis Till whose life… though short-lived… made a difference for the ages.

When we think of Emmett, we often think of his senseless murder in Money, Mississippi on August 28, 1955, that galvanized the modern civil rights movement and changed the nation. However, we invite you to also learn more about the life of the young, jovial “Bobo,” who was born 83 years ago today.

Learn more about Emmett Till: https://www.nps.gov/people/emmett-till.htm

Plan your visit to the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument: https://www.nps.gov/till/planyourvisit

Explore more opportunities available from our park partners and stakeholders: https://www.nps.gov/till/getinvolved/partners.htm

📸 Image: Emmett Till, a 13-year-old, African-American male wearing a collared shirt and tie, as he smiles in a black-and-white portrait photograph with his mother's arm resting on his shoulder; ca. 1954. NAACP Records, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

04/17/2024

The National Park Service today announced it has entered into a partnership, designating the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) as an official philanthropic and educational partner of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. Established by President Joe Biden in 2023, the monument includes sites dedicated to the legacies of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley, including the Tallahatchie County Courthouse and Graball Landing in Mississippi, and Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Illinois.

Read the full news release: https://www.nps.gov/till/learn/news/etic-official-partner.htm

📸 Image: Workers install new exhibits at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi. Credit: ETIC

04/08/2024

A virtual version of Reckoning with Remembrance is available at https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/exhibitions/reckoning-with-remembrance/online

Tomorrow, the National Museum of American History will re-open Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice and the Murder of Emmett Till in the Changing Exhibition Gallery on the east wing of the 2nd floor. The single-object exhibition features a 2008 historical marker commemorating Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy brutally lynched in Mississippi in the summer of 1955. This marker was part of a series that the Emmett Till Memorial Commission placed around Tallahatchie County, Mississippi. The marker, defaced by a stunning 317 bullet holes, exposes the ways Black history is violently contested. This was not a single act of vandalism. Rather, over the past 15 years, signs commemorating Till were repeatedly shot, defaced with acid, and thrown in a river. The continued assaults were intended to terrorize the Black community and signaled that Black history would not be tolerated.

In the face of violent opposition to their work and decades of silence by the state, citizens in the Mississippi Delta continue to commemorate Emmett Till and share his story. This exhibit, co-curated with the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, uses a single object to reveal a robust history of community activism and share their critical insight: history is a tool for justice and exclusion from history costs lives.

The re-opened exhibition will include atmospheric footage of the Tallahatchie River where Emmett’s battered body was drawn from the river and a reflection from Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr., Emmett’s close friend and cousin, on the nation’s resistance to contend with anti-Black violence.

Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice and the Murder of Emmett Till will be on view through September 15, 2024

01/24/2024

On this day in 1956, less than 4 months after J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant were acquitted of the murder of young Emmett Till, 𝐿𝑜𝑜𝑘 Magazine published a confession from the two men titled, "The Shocking Story of Approved Killing in Mississippi."

In the article, Milam and Bryant bragged about abducting, beating, and killing 15-year-old Emmett Till in the early morning hours of August 28, 1955. The confessions, stripped of any remorse, gave readers a disturbing look into the deeply entrenched racism of that era.

𝐿𝑜𝑜𝑘 Magazine journalist, William Bradford Huie, paid Milam and Bryant $3,150 for their confessions and required them to sign release forms. $3,150 in 1955 would be the equivalent of over $30,000 today. Since its publication, the article has largely controlled the public memory of Emmett Till's murder, obscuring the real details of what happened on that fateful night. Details of the published confession have since been called into question; such as whether Bryant and Milam were the only ones involved in the lynching - both men were protected from future prosecution by double jeopardy, but other co-conspirators would not have that protection.

While flawed, the article brought further attention to the brazen racism that led to the murder of Emmett Till, and fueled the flames of the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, becoming a rallying cry for equality.

NPS Photo/Jay D. Johnson

01/15/2024

Today, we honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The lives and legacies of Dr. King and Emmett Till would be forever intertwined after Till’s lynching in August 1955.

In 1955, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was a young, largely unknown minister in Montgomery, Alabama. Days after Emmett Till’s lynchers were acquitted by an all-White jury in September 1955, Dr. King gave a sermon, calling out the lack of morals of those who would carry out lynchings while simultaneously claiming to worship Christ. In December 1955, Rosa Parks thought of Emmett Till when she refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus. Following her arrest, Dr. King was chosen to lead the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Over the coming years, King became one of the most prominent figures in the Civil Rights Movement—a chain of events partly galvanized by the lynching of young Emmett Till.

Dr. King would eventually fall to the same forces of hate, racism, and violence that killed young Emmett Till. But from those tragedies, a dream of a better and more just world continues to rise. We all play a part. How will you honor the lives and legacies of Dr. King and Emmett Till?

Learn more about the Civil Rights Movement: https://www.nps.gov/civilrights

📸 Image one: The Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial in Washington D.C., part of National Mall and Memorial Parks. NPS
📸 Image two: The Birth Home of Martin Luther King, Jr., part of Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park in Georgia. NPS
📸 Image three: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaking at the 1963 March on Washington, D.C. U.S. National Archives.

01/12/2024

Mamie Till Mobley was laid to rest on this week in 2003, she lived to see major advancements in civil liberties. Those changes in liberties were in part ignited by her brave but painful decision to show the world the mutilated body of her son, Emmett. While nothing would ever replace her son, the changes began to replace injustice. A few of the milestones she must have celebrated were:

▪️ December 1, 1955: Rosa Parks refuses to give up her seat to a white man and prompted a year-long bus boycott in Montgomery, Alabama.

▪️ September 9, 1957: Eisenhower signs the Civil Rights Act of 1957 to help protect voter rights.

▪️ February 1, 1960: In Greensboro, North Carolina, four Black college students refuse to leave a “whites only” lunch counter and inspire nationwide “Sit-ins”.

▪️ August 28, 1963: A quarter of a million people took part in The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Martin Luther King gives his “I Have A Dream” speech.

▪️ 1964-1968: President Johnson signed several legal acts intended to eliminate discrimination.

Learn more about the Civil Rights movement at https://www.nps.gov/subjects/civilrights/modern-civil-rights-movement.htm

📷Image: Mamie Till-Mobley's gravestone. NPS Photo

12/22/2023

❄ From our family to yours: have a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

Find Midwest national parks and trip planning information: nps.gov/midwest and the NPS App

📸 Graphic: NPS

12/20/2023

Mississippi has many places integral to the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley story. Visitors to Emmett Till and Mamie-Till Mobley National Monument are welcome to travel to and view the exterior of sites without visitor services. These include:
📌 Tutwiler Funeral Home in Tutwiler, Mississippi
📌 East Money Church of God in Christ Cemetery, Bryant’s Grocery, and Ben Roy’s Service Station in Money, Mississippi

Please be respectful of private property when visiting these sites. To learn more, visit www.nps.gov/till/planyourvisit/things2do.htm

📸 Image: Bryant’s Grocery. NPS / Jay D. Johnson