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<\/source><\/picture>The church that held the funeral for Emmett Till, an African American youth whose brutal murder in 1955 helped galvanize the modern Civil Rights Movement, has been made part of a national monument.<\/p>\n
Last week, on what would have been Till\u2019s 82nd birthday, President Joe Biden officially established the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument.<\/p>\n
The monument includes three sites: Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ of Chicago, Illinois, which was where Till\u2019s funeral was held; Graball Landing in Glendora, Mississippi, which is believed to be where his body was discovered; and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, which was where Till\u2019s murderers were tried and found not guilty.<\/p>\n
Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland said in a statement <\/a>released last week that \u201cit has been my honor to visit the sites that help tell the story of Emmett and Mamie\u2019s lives with the family and community members who loved them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPresident Biden\u2019s establishment of this national monument is a testament to the strength and bravery of Mamie Till-Mobley to honor her son and ensure that his death was not in vain,\u201d Haaland said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are honored to be entrusted with the responsibility of preserving their stories as part of our enduring effort to pursue a more perfect union.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., cousin of Till and reportedly the last living witness of his abduction, was quoted<\/a> in a White House press release last Saturday that the national monument \u201cmakes certain that Emmett Till\u2019s life and legacy, along with his mother Mamie Till Mobley\u2019s social action and impact, will live on and be used to inspire others to create a more just and equitable society.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe thank President Biden for codifying the national monument and are heartened to know these places will foster empathy, understanding and healing for years to come,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n At present, according to the National Park Service, only the exterior of the Roberts Temple is open to visitors.<\/p>\n In August 1955, two white men beat 14-year-old Till to death after a white woman named Carolyn Bryant Donham claimed that the teenager had whistled at her while she was working at a grocery store.<\/p>\n In September 1955, Till-Mobley decided to have an open-casket funeral service and viewing for her murdered son, with thousands of mourners seeing his brutally battered body.<\/p>\n Outrage over the murder and the acquittal of the two white men responsible for Till\u2019s death helped to fuel nationwide calls for racial equality and the end of segregation in the South.<\/p>\n In 2006, Roberts Temple was designated a City of Chicago landmark and in September 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation labeled the church one of the United States\u2019 \u201cmost endangered historic places<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n In April, Donham died at age 88 in hospice care in Westlake, Louisiana, with efforts to press charges against her for her role in the Till murder having failed to come to fruition.<\/p>\n