An exhibit that shares a story of tragedy, justice and hope is coming to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center next year.
Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See, produced by the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, will open in Cincinnati on Jan. 10, 2025. The exhibit tells the troubling story of Emmett Till’s murder and his mother’s courageous actions to bring him justice and shine light on the toll of racial hatred and violence in the United States.
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old Black child from Chicago who was visiting his uncle in Money, Mississippi, when he was abducted, tortured and brutally murdered after allegedly whistling at a white woman outside a store. His mutilated body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River days later and sent home to his grieving mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
Emmett’s murder was widely publicized and started a ripple of activism that sparked the Civil Rights Movement in the U.S., with Rosa Parks saying, “I thought about Emmett Till, and I couldn’t go back.” And in 1963, organizers of the March on Washington chose Aug. 28 in honor of the date Emmett was murdered. But the most powerful response came from Mamie, who insisted on Emmett’s funeral being open-casket, saying “Let the world see what they did to my boy.”
“The story of Emmett Till is heartbreaking and disturbing, laying bare the vicious cost of racism in our country,” Woodrow Keown, Jr., president and COO of the Freedom Center, said in a press release. “His mother knew that and refused to let her darling boy die in vain. She endured the pain so that no other mother would have to suffer the loss of her child. As mothers still grieve the cost of racial violence, we’re hopeful that this exhibition about Emmett’s legacy and Mamie’s courage may give us pause to reflect, to rectify and to heal.”
Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See aims to tell the stories of Emmett, who was described as a jokester and fun-loving child, and Mamie, who refused to let her son’s death be in vain. A centerpiece of the exhibition is a bullet-riddled, vandalized historical marker that both commemorates a tragedy and illustrates the ongoing scourge of racism, says organizers.
The exhibition also serves as a call to action to make a ripple of justice in your own community.
“Through these stories, Emmett and Mamie Till-Mobley remind us that we have much work to do in the fight against racial injustice and hatred. They also inspire a new generation that will repair past hatred and come together to build a bright future of peace and understanding,” the Freedom Center shared.
Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See opens at the Freedom Center on Jan. 10.
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, 50 E. Freedom Way, The Banks. More info: freedomcenter.org.
This article appears in Oct 30 – Nov 12, 2024.
