It’s been more than 70 years since 14-year-old Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 by two men for allegedly whistling at Caroline Bryant, a White woman who was married to one of the murderers. Till’s fate for being a playful, happy-go-lucky teenager is one of the most violent and well-known examples and reminders of how Black people are criminalized and that Black children don’t enjoy the grace extended to children of other races. It also reminds every Black parent that they can never relax and assume that people will give their children the benefit of the doubt. The famous “talk” is a rite-of-passage for most Black children, who are lectured about how to stay safe during encounters with White people and police whose actions and accusations can potentially lead to their injury or death.
Even though Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on making sure the “whole world” would know about and see what happened to her only son by having an open casket funeral, exposing his tortured and deformed face, there are too many today who have never even heard of Till and have been shielded from learning about how cruel this country has been to Black people. The recent efforts to erase or revise information from books, schools, museum exhibits, films and classroom discussions make it more difficult for people to learn about this atrocity. But truth can never be forgotten or erased.
Members of the Till family have spent decades making sure Emmett’s fate is known. Street names, statues, schools, historical markers, museum exhibits, a Community Task Force and Memorial Center in Summit, Illinois, (which recently purchased the barn where Till was murdered), an institute, a foundation, National Park Service sites that were designated by President Joe Biden in 2023, and a forthcoming museum in Chicago’s Woodlawn neighborhood are among many honors for Emmett Till and his mother. Family members have tirelessly engaged in media interviews, programs and films, including his cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., who co-wrote a book with Christopher Benson: “A Few Days Full of Trouble.” Despite all of these tributes, the hatred that led to his death still remains, exemplified by a historical marker in Mississippi honoring him being vandalized several times.
The story of Emmett Till reminds us of how violent and cruel America has been toward Black people. The country’s history includes two and half centuries of race-based slavery followed by a century of state-sanctioned race-based apartheid and terrorism that included thousands of lynchings, then over six decades of overpolicing and mass incarceration. Till-Mobley’s insistence on making sure the world saw what happened to her son embodies the strength and resilience of Black people. She never stopped fighting for justice as she spent the rest of her life, until her death in 2003 at age 81, without her only child. Meanwhile, the story is also a reminder of how justice is too frequently not served for Black people. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam were acquitted for murdering Till, never spending one day in jail. In addition, Caroline Bryant Donham, the woman who accused the teenage Till of disrespecting her, spent the rest of her life without any legal repercussions for her false accusation. She died in 2023 at age 88, leaving those who hoped for justice never seeing it.
The extreme level of violence exacted on Till brought to light the difference in how Black children are viewed and treated. Seven decades after Till’s murder, Black children still have a short window of opportunity to be viewed as innocent and be carefree, playful and joyful without others judging and treating them more harshly than White children in school and society at large. Black children as young as five years old experience racism and demonization.
President Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law on March 29, 2022.
I had the privilege to speak at the ceremony in the beautiful Rose Garden. In my remarks, I connected the work and legacy of my great-grandmother, Ida B. Wells, and her anti-lynching work to the life and fate of Emmett Till. After over 200 attempts to have anti-lynching legislation passed, it finally happened 124 years after Wells first urged President William S. McKinley in 1898 to do so in response to the murder of Postmaster Frazier Baker.
Just three years after the historic signing ceremony, the lush Rose Garden was paved over by the 47th president. It is now a cold, hard, blindingly white slab of concrete — something that one can take as a symbol of the vision for the country. After going through an exceedingly short “racial reckoning” after George Floyd’s 2020 murder, Black people are having to fight (again) to be seen, heard and viewed as important contributors to the American story. There is an extreme and unrelenting effort to pave over and whitewash truth and history, demonstrated by numerous policies and decisions, including the rescinding of free days at National Parks for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday and Juneteenth, while adding the June 14 birthday of the 47th president.
In addition, Black people have experienced disproportionate economic and social hardship due to apparent targeted violent slashing of the federal government and flurry of executive orders signed within the first few months of 2025. Many national and local legal, social, religious, cultural and educational organizations and individual leaders are fighting efforts to erase, remarginalize and disenfranchise Black people while strategizing to confront anticipated further attacks and challenges.
All Americans who believe in truth and the dream of a multicultural, multireligious, multigender, multiabled, inclusive society are now engaged in a battle to keep our stories and realities in the public sphere. Resistance to erasure is imperative and growing. We can all take notes from the Till family to draw attention to the cruelty that goes unpunished and unaccountable. The underbelly of the “land of the free, home of the brave” is those with the mindset of Till’s murderers who have been encouraged to continue in the tradition of their violent and sadistic ancestors. And too many who apparently relish in other people’s pain and torture are represented in today’s presidential cabinet. They seem to believe that Black people and others of color do not have the right to experience the same freedoms they boast makes this country “great.”
Since the 13th Amendment ended slavery in 1865, each generation of African Americans has worked for and hoped that the next generation would enjoy more rights and opportunities than they had. So, to feel that the country is going backwards to refight battles that people thought were already won is disheartening. This feeling is real given that at least two Black men were found hanging from trees in 2025 — chilling reminders of the over 4,400 lynchings documented by Equal Justice Initiative that took place in the late 19th to mid-20th centuries. The current administration has led unrelenting assaults to erase and unravel gains of millions of citizens, to take us back to a time of oppression and terror. Although people have tried to function under chronic chaos, the whirlwind of changes have led many to experience “outrage fatigue”. But people are developing strategies to survive and thrive. Despite the wishes and efforts of many of the people in current national leadership, people will not go back! We are not going back to a time when only wealthy White male landowners had extensive rights while everyone else was oppressed and lived in terror. We might be in for a battle, but all Americans need to reap the benefits of the United States. Not just a few who seem to be willing to tear apart the country rather than share the opportunities. We all need to work in tandem with the Till family to “let the world see” the atrocities then engage in collective healing.
