FILE - This undated portrait shows Emmett Louis Till, who was kidnapped, tortured and killed in the Mississippi Delta in August 1955 after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman working in a store. The House has unanimously passed a bill posthumously awarding the Congressional Gold Medal to Emmett Till, the Chicago teenager murdered by white supremacists in the 1950s, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. The bill is meant to honor Till and his mother with the highest civilian honor that Congress awards. (AP Photo/File)
President Joe Biden has announced plans to designate a new national monument honoring Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley. According to CNN, Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to commemorate what would have been Till’s 82nd birthday.
The monument will tell the story of Till’s lynching and the heroic activism of his mother which helped to launch the Civil Rights Movement.
FILE – Mamie Till-Mobley, mother of lynching victim Emmett Till, right, and Wilma Allen, of New Orleans, search for their relatives’ names on the black granite table at the Civil Rights Memorial in Montgomery, Ala., Nov. 5, 1989. A memorial honoring Till-Mobley will be unveiled Saturday, April 29, 2023, outside the suburban Chicago high school she attended as a young woman, long before she became a critical player in the Civil Rights Movement. (AP Photo/Dave Martin, File)
A White House official statement reads:
“The new monument will protect places that tell the story of Emmett Till’s too-short life and racially-motivated murder, the unjust acquittal of his murderers, and the activism of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who courageously brought the world’s attention to the brutal injustices and racism of the time, catalyzing the civil rights movement.”
Clay Cane is an award-winning journalist, writer, radio host, and political commentator. A graduate of Rutgers University with a degree in African-American Studies, his work on race, culture, and politics have appeared in national publications, including the Washington Post, CNN, and The Grio. Clay is a regular political commentator on MSNBC.
