New National Monument Honors Till Family Legacy

The executive order brings national recognition of Emmett Till’s life and legacy, along with his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who courageously catalyzed the American civil rights movement. By connecting this series of historically significant sites that relate to the Till family, our country’s commemorative landscape will reflect a more full and complete telling of our American story.  

With over $10 million in funding to date, Mellon Foundation has resourced a consortium of local and national partners working to preserve, document, and make publicly accessible sites connected to the Till family legacy. 

“Due to the shared vision and coordination of the Till family, community activists, historians, educators, culture workers, and other partner organizations, the torture and murder of Emmett Till and the bravery of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley will be forever marked as sites of learning in the country’s commemorative landscape,” said Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation. “The Mellon Foundation is honored to be a part of this vital collaborative effort to make indelibly present Emmett Till’s central and sacred place in our collective American history. May his tragic death and his mother’s courage continue to empower us to stand bravely against forces of violence and hatred.” 

July 25 is remembered as Emmett Till’s birthday. In 2023, he would have been 82 years old. 

In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till left Chicago to visit family in the Mississippi Delta, where he was abducted and lynched on August 28. Emmett’s murder shocked the conscience of the nation and illuminated the impact of racial violence—but only after his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, held an open casket funeral for her son at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago. The subsequent trial and acquittal of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for Emmett’s murder, held at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, further demonstrated the injustice of the time.  

The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has provided technical preservation support and critical grant funding to aid in the rescue of sites important to the Till legacy. Grantmaking from Mellon and The Action Fund supports the Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley Institute, which will provide specialized preservation expertise to ensure that Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ is restored for continued use by the congregation and interpreted for local, national, and global audiences. 

“Imbued in these now permanently protected buildings and landscapes are the unspeakable crimes of racial violence, and the tireless strength of Mamie Till-Mobley who harnessed her grief in pursuit of social justice,” said Brent Leggs, executive director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. “Through historic preservation, this multiracial coalition of partners will continue its work to uplift this new national monument and secure the resources and investment needed to ensure the site's future.” 

Mellon’s contributions have also included support for the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC), the nonprofit center that promotes restorative justice through public education, storytelling, and historic preservation; and to the National Park Foundation, which in collaboration with ETIC and the National Park Service, supported efforts around the national monument designation of Mississippi’s Tallahatchie County Courthouse. 

"After fifteen years of hard work, we have finally achieved a designation that we believe is pivotal to our nation's story,” said Patrick Weems, executive director, Emmett Till Interpretive Center. “The lynching of Emmett Till and the courage of Mamie Till-Mobley served as a springboard to the modern Civil Rights Movement, and preserving this history in perpetuity will serve as a continual act of restorative justice.”

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