President Joe Biden has stayed silent on the controversial stance that Ron DeSantis has taken on how Black history and slavery should be taught in schools. However, yesterday, the President made his viewpoint loud and clear when he announced he will be signing a proclamation establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Chicago and Mississippi. The signing will be even more symbolic on Tuesday as it is Emmett’s birthday. He would have been 82.
Racism Claims a Young Boy’s Life
In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till’s life was taken from him while he was visiting family in Mississippi. In a racially motivated act, Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, kidnapped the young Chicago native and brutally murdered him. All because Bryant’s wife, Carolyn, claimed the young teen had whistled at her one day.
After dragging Till from his uncle’s home, the two white men brutally beat him to the point of disfigurement. Then they shot him before throwing his battered body into the Tallahatchie River with a cotton-gin fan attached to barbed wire wrapped around his neck. The men had hoped the weight would hold the body down so Till’s body would never be found. Fortunately, the young man’s body came loose and was found a few days later.
Throughout their trial, Bryant and Milam maintained their innocence. Eventually, they were acquitted of the heinous crime by an all-white male jury. Later, Milam and Bryant sold their story for $4,00 to “Look” magazine, where they bragged about the vicious murder. They called it a form of “Southern justice.” Furthermore, the men stated they implemented the “Southern justice” to protect white womanhood.
Striking a Blow Against Racial Injustice
Afterward, members of Citizens’ Councils (a white supremacist civic organization) rejoiced about the acquittal. In fact, they threw celebrations and threatened anyone who had testified against Bryant and Milam. Additionally, they threatened members of the local NAACP.
However, the racial targeting didn’t deter Till’s family or civil rights organizations and national newspapers. In fact, the NAACP and everyone aforementioned used Till’s death to strike a blow against racial injustice and terrorism.
The young man’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, refused to have a closed casket at her son’s funeral. She wanted the world to see what the monsters did to her baby. Jet magazine covered the funeral, including capturing images of Till’s mutilated corpse.
Taking a Stance
The brutal lynching of the Chicago teen sparked outrage across the nation. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Alabama city bus for 100 days after his death. Reverend Jesse Jackson told Vanity Fair in 1988 that Parks had considered moving to the back of the bus. However, all she could think of was Emmett Till, and she told Reverend Jackson that “she couldn’t do it.”
Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was asked by the Women’s Democratic Council to help start a citywide bus boycott. Deeply impacted by Emmett Till’s abduction and murder, he delivered a powerful sermon a few days after the white men were acquitted.
“The white men who lynch Negroes worship Christ. That jury in Mississippi, which a few days ago in the Emmett Till case, freed two white men from what might be considered one of the most brutal and inhuman crimes of the twentieth century, worships Christ. The perpetrators of many of the greatest evils in our society worship Christ. This trouble is that all people, like the Pharisee, go to church regularly, they pay their tithes and offerings, and observe religiously the various ceremonial requirements. The trouble with these people, however, is that they worship Christ emotionally and not morally. They cast his ethical and moral insights behind the gushing smoke of emotional adoration and ceremonial piety,” Reverend King said to his parishioners.
Emmett’s Death Still Speaks Volumes
The young man’s brutal death still speaks volumes today. Last year, President Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, making lynching a federal hate crime. Something many people feel should have happened years ago.
In his speech, Biden acknowledged the extensive research Bryan Stevenson did in understanding the legacy of lynching. Stevenson found “that between 1877 and 1950, more than 4,400 Black people were murdered by lynching, most in the South but some in the North as well.”
This horrifying data helped Stevenson gain traction for the first dedicated to understanding the legacy of lynching — the National Memorial for Peace and Justice. It is located in Montgomery, Alabama.
Racism Is Not a Thing of the Past
Uneducated comments like DeSantis’ claim that Black people benefited from slavery are proof that racist thoughts still exist. On that same note, the senseless mass shootings against individuals because they don’t share the same skin color as the Buffalo, New York grocery store massacre is proof violence still occurs.
Biden’s proclamation of building the two monuments is a small acknowledgment, one that some feel is a step in the right direction. However, it will take more for people to fully understand the ramifications of their actions, and erasing history because it makes people uncomfortable is not the answer.
Teaching the past helps others from repeating the past.
By Sheena Robertson
Sources:
Politico: A Biden nod for Emmett Till in Chicago
The White House: Remarks by President Biden at Signing of H.R. 55, the “Emmett Till Antilynching Act”
Library of Congress: The Murder of Emmett Till
National Museum of African American History and Culture: Emmett Till’s Death Inspired a Movement
Top and Featured Image Courtesy of Gage Skidmore‘s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inset Image by Nick Number Courtesy of Wikimedia – Creative Commons License
