Emmett & Mamie Till-Mobley House Museum
6427 S St Lawrence Avenue (West Woodlawn)
Emmett & Mamie Till-Mobley House Museum is the childhood home of Emmett Till, the place where he lived when he took his ill-fated trip to Money, Mississippi. Blacks in Green is in the process of converting the house into a monument to the Till family’s legacy of courage and forgiveness. Once fully restored, the building will offer education programming, performances, and standing exhibits.
The murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till was 14 years old in 1955 when he went to visit relatives in Mississippi. While in her store, Emmett was falsely alledged to have whistled at Carolyn Bryant. This violated the unwritten laws of the Jim Crow South. Her husband, Roy Bryant, and brother-in-law, J.W. Milam, kidnapped, mercilessly beat, then shot Emmett in the head before dumping his body in the Tallahatchie River. According to a Library of Congress synopsis, “The newspaper coverage and murder trial galvanized a generation of young African Americans to join the Civil Rights Movement out of fear that such an incident could happen to friends, family, or even themselves.”
Emmett’s mother, Mamie, insisted on a public funeral service with an open casket at the Robert Temple Church of God in Christ. Thousands (tens of thousands, by some accounts) viewed the body, and Black-oriented newspapers and magazines throughout the country covered the story, along with pictures. Two journalists, Moses Newson and Simeon Booker, covered the murder for the Tri-State Defender and JET, respectively. Photographer David Jackson, working alongside Booker, took an image of Emmett in the coffin that would become famous. JET’s circulation increased dramatically after that—they even, for the first time, had to reprint that issue. The Black community became more aware than ever that action needed to be taken against these widespread, persistent and heinous crimes. Mississippi newspapers and police authorities responded to the criticism with staunch support for the killers. Later that year, in September of 1955, an all-white jury acquitted Bryant and Milam of all charges. In a Look magazine interview published about a year later, the two men would admit to the murder, for which they supposedly got $4,000.
The outraged Black community, in Chicago especially but all across the nation, came together to demand justice, if not for Emmett Till then their entire race. While not the start of the Civil Rights movement, this historical moment was a flashpoint that led to dramatic increases in activism and resistance.
The house was designated as a Chicago Landmark on November 5, 2020. Down the block from the house, BIG established the Mamie Till-Mobley Forgiveness Garden; newly tree-lined path connects the two sites.
