|
This week, President Joe Biden will use his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate a new national monument in honor of Emmett Till, the Black teenager who was abducted and killed in 1955, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
The designation will happen on Tuesday—what would have been Till's 82nd birthday. The monument will consist of three protected sites: one at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the Chicago church where his funeral was held; and two in Mississippi, where he was killed. The monument will be the fourth Biden has created since taking office in 2021, and will serve as an important use of the Antiquities Act to protect and preserve areas of cultural significance that tell the story of America.
The murder of Till and the subsequent activism of his mother fueled the civil rights movement. In particular, his mother's decision to have an open casket at his funeral displaying the brutality of the 14-year-old’s death is said to have been a catalyst for the movement, demonstrating the unsettling reality of racist violence.
|
This new national monument is the physical evidence and a living testimony to the legacy of one family whose unimaginable tragedy led our nation one step closer to the arc of justice.”
