Emmett Till Memorial Statue Unveiled in Mississippi: 'Affirmation That Our Lives Matter'

Mar. 15, 2025

Emmett Till’s legacy has become a permanent fixture in Greenwood, Miss.

Hundreds gathered Friday as the city dedicated a nine-foot bronze statue of Till in the downtown Rail Spike Park, about 40 miles south of the city where the 14-year-old Black teenwas kidnapped, beaten and lynchedon Aug. 28, 1955, becoming a catalyst for the American civil rights movement.

“This is a great day as we take another leap forward inrecognizing the life and legacy of Emmett Till,” Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., told ABC News. Parker. Parker is Till’s only remaining family member and saw him the night he was kidnapped.

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GREENWOOD, MISSISSIPPI - OCTOBER 21: A statue of Emmett Till is unveiled on October 21, 2022 in Greenwood, Mississippi. 14-year old Emmett Till, a Black teenager in town from Chicago visiting family in August 1955, was accused of flirting with Carolyn Bryant, a white woman working at the shop. Till was later kidnapped from his uncle’s home and murdered during a brutal, racist attack. His death is attributed to being the spark that ignited the civil rights movement. Today the nearby town of Greenwood will dedicate a statue of Till in the city’s downtown. (Photo by Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“As so many people are determined to erase our history, we are blessed to have so many more allies in the struggle to keep our story alive,” Parker added. “This statue is affirmation that our lives matter.”

Emmett Till.Getty

Emmett Till

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“I feel that when young people ask me what the memory of Emmett Till is, we have this statue as a memory,” said state Sen. David Jordan, who represents Greenwood and allocated $150,000 in state funding for the statue. “He liberated all Black people for all that he sacrificed.”

The statue’s unveiling comes aftera bulletproof historical marker was erectedin 2019 at the site where his body was found, according to NBC News. The previous memorial wasa lightning rod for racist attacks, having been vandalized and defaced with bullet holes on multiple occasions.

Born and raised in Chicago, Till was visiting family members in Money, Miss. when shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant Donham, a 21-year-old white woman, claimed that he whistled and then grabbed her inside her family’s grocery store on Aug. 24, 1955.

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Till’s accuserrecanted parts of her original accusationin 2017. Afteran unserved arrest warrant was foundfor Bryant — who is now 88 — in a Greenwood courthouse basement in June, a Mississippi grand jurydeclined to indict herin August.

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The true story of Emmett’s life, death and his motherMamie Till-Mobley’s ensuing fight for justice is the subject of the new biopicTill, which is now in select theaters until its Oct. 28 release nationwide.

In January, the Senate passed legislation toposthumously award Emmett and Mamie with Congressional Gold Medals, the country’s highest civilian honor. PresidentJoe Bidensigned theEmmett Till Anti-Lynching Actinto law in March.

source: people.com

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