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Tag: emmett till

  • Emmett Till’s Cousin, Priscilla Williams-Till, Running For US Senate in Mississippi

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    Priscilla Williams-Till, a cousin of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley, is running for U.S. Senate in Mississippi, pledging to “change the hate that’s come out of Mississippi” through leadership rooted in justice. Williams-Till announced her candidacy on Aug. 28, 2025, at the Mississippi Capitol rotunda while wearing a white T-shirt printed with photos of Emmett and Mamie alongside the words “A Mother’s Love Never Dies.”

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    According to the Mississippi Free Press, Williams-Till is challenging incumbent Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, whose term expires in January 2027. Hyde-Smith sparked national outrage in 2018 when she said during a campaign stop, “If he invited me to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,” a remark first documented by journalist Lamar White Jr. and later followed by an apology “to anyone offended.”

    “We have a sitting person that’s representing the state of Mississippi, like Cindy Hyde-Smith, who made the comment, ‘If I was invited to a public hanging, I’d be on the front row,’” Williams-Till said at her press conference. “Well, I represent this state, too, and God has directed my path. We will change the hate that’s come out of Mississippi.”

    Hyde-Smith went on to defeat Democrat Mike Espy in a 2018 runoff and again in 2020.

    Family Legacy of Civil Rights

    The Mississippi Free Press states that Williams-Till’s great-grandmother, Ella Smith, and Mamie Till-Mobley’s grandfather, George Smith, were siblings, tying her to one of the most defining tragedies of the Civil Rights era. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was kidnapped and lynched in Money, Miss., after Carolyn Bryant accused him of whistling at her. An all-white jury acquitted J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant of murder.

    Mamie Till-Mobley’s insistence on an open-casket funeral galvanized the Civil Rights Movement. According to the Mississippi Free Press, that history fuels Williams-Till’s push for justice and transparency.

    Call for Till Case Files and Accountability

    Williams-Till said the U.S. Department of Justice released heavily redacted federal Emmett Till case files on Aug. 22, 2025, after notifying the family four days earlier. But the Mississippi Free Press reports that Mississippi has not released its state case files, prompting Williams-Till to petition for their disclosure.

    “What is the State of Mississippi so afraid of in those files that you all will not release pertinent, important information to carry down in history?” she asked at the press conference.

    She also urged the state to posthumously prosecute Carolyn Bryant, though U.S. law prohibits criminal prosecution of deceased individuals.

     “We heard that Carolyn Bryant’s name was always a part of the warrant, but they chose not to arrest her because she had children,” Williams-Till said. Bryant died in 2023.

    Policy Priorities and Positions

    Williams-Till supports expanding Medicaid and strengthening rural hospitals, citing personal experience with families overwhelmed by insurance changes. 

    “We need a system set up to help people get health insurance for the ones who are cut out of Medicaid across the state,” Williams-Till said.

    She vowed to introduce federal legislation targeting systemic injustice, including police reform and zoning discrimination. On reproductive rights, she told the outlet: 

    “I think people have a right to decide whatever they want to do with their bodies. That’s between them and God. I don’t think any man or woman should dictate to a woman what she should do to her body.”

    Williams-Till also said she supports U.S. weapons aid to Israel and Ukraine—while believing Ukraine “should fend for itself” otherwise—and opposes Palestinian statehood and transgender athletes competing on teams matching their gender identity.

    A Growing Field

    Williams-Till enters a race that includes independent Ty Pinkins and Democratic prosecutor Scott Colom, who announced his candidacy after Hyde-Smith helped block his federal judgeship nomination.

    With deep family ties to Emmett Till’s legacy and a platform centered on health care, justice reform, and racial reconciliation, Priscilla Williams-Till is betting that Mississippi voters are ready for a historic change.

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  • Today in History: August 28, Emmett Till’s brutalized body found

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    Today is Thursday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2025. There are 125 days left in the year.

    Today in history:

    On Aug. 28,1955, Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had allegedly whistled at a white woman four days prior; he was found brutally slain three days later.

    Also on this date:

    In 1845, the first issue of “Scientific American” magazine was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.

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  • Today in History: August 28, Emmett Till’s brutalized body found

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    Today is Thursday, Aug. 28, the 240th day of 2025. There are 125 days left in the year.

    Today in history:

    On Aug. 28,1955, Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was abducted from his uncle’s home in Money, Mississippi, by two white men after he had allegedly whistled at a white woman four days prior; he was found brutally slain three days later.

    Also on this date:

    In 1845, the first issue of “Scientific American” magazine was published; it remains the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States.

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  • Train ride from Chicago to Mississippi marks 70 years since of Emmett Till’s death

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    The commemoration of 70 years since Emmett Till’s death is being marked by family, friends and officials Wednesday as they repeated the fateful train ride he took from Chicago to Mississippi in 1955.

    The ride was organized by the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and National Parks Conservation Association. Among the passengers were the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Till’s cousin and the last surviving eyewitness to his kidnapping, his wife Dr. Marvel Parker, and Juliet Louis, the widow of sharecropper Willie Reed who reported Till’s death and testified at the trial of his murderers.

    The Amtrak City of New Orleans left Chicago’s Union Station at 8:05 p.m. Wednesday night, following a communal prayer. It was set to arrive in Greenwood, Mississippi, on Thursday morning, which marks 70 years since Till’s death.

    Back in 1955, the Rev. Parker and his cousin Till were just teenagers. They jumped on a train together from Union Station to Mississippi to visit family — but only one of them returned alive.

    While in Mississippi, Till, 14 at the time, was kidnapped in the dead of night and then brutally lynched after reportedly whistling at a white woman.

    Parker was in the house when Till was taken by white men at gunpoint.

    “They came to me first in this room,” Parker recalled in 2021. “And I was shaking like a leaf on a tree.”

    When Till’s badly decomposed body was found three days later in the Tallahatchie River, his mother Mamie Till refused to allow a quick burial and instead brought his remains back to Chicago, where she insisted on an open casket funeral.

    That open casket funeral, and photos from it which were printed in newspapers nationwide, are credited with sparking the modern-day Civil Rights Movement.

    Seventy years later, Parker boarded a train with a purpose.

    “There’s a saying in the Bible, ‘Less thou forget,’” he said. ‘It helps us to remember.”

    As Parker took the solemn ride, he said it is essential never to forget.

    “For one thing, 70 years ago, we didn’t think about what was going to happen,” said Wheeler.

    What did happen was that Till’s lynchers, Roy Bryant and John Milam, were tried and acquitted by a jury. The woman at the center of the whistling allegations, Carolyn Bryant, confessed decades later to historian Timothy Tyson that her allegations against the teenager were false.

    “We’re not here to stir up animosity or hate, but to remind people of how far we’ve come and how much progress we’ve made,” said Wheeler.

    While 70 years have passed, Till’s family said America still has healing to do.

    “I’m always reminded of the suffering and price that he paid, but we’ve come a long way — and his mother’s statement was, ‘I hope he didn’t die in vain,’” said Wheeler. “He didn’t die in vain.”

    The family has much on which to reflect on the long train ride.

    Jermont Terry

    Jermont Terry joined the CBS 2 team in October 2019. He’s born and raised on Chicago’s South Side. He’s happy to return home to report on his community after 18 years of uncovering stories across the country.

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  • Train ride from Chicago to Mississippi marks 70th anniversary of Emmett Till’s death

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    Train ride from Chicago to Mississippi marks 70th anniversary of Emmett Till’s death



    Train ride from Chicago to Mississippi marks 70th anniversary of Emmett Till’s death

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    The 70th anniversary of Emmett Till’s death is being marked by family, friends and officials repeating the fateful train ride he took from Chicago to Mississippi in 1955.

    The ride is organized by the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and National Parks Conservation Association. Among the passengers will be Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., Till’s cousin and the last surviving eyewitness to his kidnapping, his wife Dr. Marvel Parker, and Juliet Louis, the widow of sharecropper Willie Reed who reported Till’s death and testified at the trial of his murderers.

    The Amtrak City of New Orleans will leave Chicago’s Union Station at 8:05 p.m. Wednesday night, following a communal prayer. It will arrive in Greenwood, Mississippi, on Thursday morning, which is the 70th anniversary of Till’s death.

    Emmett Till was 14 years old when he was kidnapped in the dead of night and then brutally lynched after reportedly whitling at a white woman while he was visiting family in Mississippi. When his badly decomposed body was found three days later in the Tallahatchie River, his mother Mamie Till refused to allow a quick burial and instead brought his remains back to Chicago, where she insisted on an open casket funeral.

    That open casket funeral, and photos from it which were printed in newspapers nationwide, are credited with sparking the modern-day Civil Rights Movement.

    Till’s lynchers were tried and acquitted. The woman at the center of the whistling allegations, Carolyn Bryant, confessed decades later to historian Timothy Tyson that her allegations against the teenager were false.

    After arriving in Mississippi Thursday, there will be programming to commemorate the anniversary of Till’s death and his legacy. 

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  • National monument honoring Emmett Till to consist of 3 sites in Illinois and Mississippi

    National monument honoring Emmett Till to consist of 3 sites in Illinois and Mississippi

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    President Biden is expected to sign a proclamation Tuesday designating locations associated with Emmett Till as a national monument on what would have been his 82nd birthday, recognizing the impact of his killing on the civil rights movement. 

    Graball Landing in Mississippi, the Tallahatchie River location where the brutally beaten body of 14-year-old Emmett Till was discovered in 1955, will soon be one of three sites designated as a national monument in his honor, CBS News has learned.  

    The White House is expected to announce the river site, the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse and the Robert Temple church in Chicago as part of a national monument, recognizing both the history of racial violence and the need for legal justice. Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, is also being honored with the monument. 

    Brent Leggs, who helped secure the designation, hopes it will draw attention to approximately 5,000 additional Black historic sites across the United States that require approximately half a billion dollars for preservation. 

    “It isn’t for our nation to remain stuck in a painful past. It really is to challenge our nation to say, ‘we can do better,’” Leggs said. 

    The memory of Emmett Till remains imprinted on the banks of the Tallahatchie River. 

    “This landscape holds memory of one of the most painful moments in American history,” said Leggs. The site serves as a grim reminder of the violent and threatening environment faced by Black youth in American society during that era. 

    Nearly 70 years later, Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Till’s cousin, still remembers the fateful summer of 1955 when they traveled from Chicago to visit relatives in the Mississippi Delta. On their trip, the cousins visited Bryant’s Grocery Store, owned by Roy and Carolyn Bryant. Till’s innocent act of whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a White woman, resulted in fatal consequences. 

    “That’s a death sentence,” Parker said. 

    Days later, armed with guns, Roy Bryant and his brother J.W. Milam found the family at their home.

    “I heard ’em talkin, ‘You got two boys here from Chicago?’” Parker said. “I said, ‘God, we’re getting ready to die.’ Shaking like a leaf on the tree. I closed my eyes to be shot but they didn’t shoot me. They came to take Emmett. That’s what they did.” 

    Till was abducted from his relative’s home, tortured and shot before his lifeless body was dumped in the Tallahatchie River. 

    The images of Till’s beaten and bruised body appeared in Black-owned newspapers and magazines across the country, thanks to the efforts of the Black press, which played a crucial role in exposing racial disparities. 

    Mamie Till-Mobley, Till’s mother, held an open casket funeral at Roberts Temple in Chicago, where nearly 50,000 people paid their respects. The public viewing of Till’s disfigured face is considered a catalyst for the civil rights movement. 

    “She allowed the world to see what she saw when she opened that box that they shipped from in Mississippi: the face of racial hatred and racism in America,” said Marvel Parker, Wheeler Parker’s wife.

    The Parkers are focused on restoring the 100-year-old church building, which requires approximately $20 million for full restoration. 

    At the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, restored to its 1955 appearance, Patrick Weems facilitates tours, reminding visitors of the battle between racial violence and legal injustice that took place there. 

    It was at that courthouse that an all-White male jury acquitted Bryant and Milam for Till’s murder. Months later, the brothers confessed their crime to a magazine, but were never held accountable. 

    “There was a battle here. There’s a battle of the souls of this nation about what was gonna win out. Are they gonna say segregation is right and what the murderers did was OK? Or is justice going to prevail? And that day — we all lost,” Weems said. 

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  • White House to establish national monument honoring Emmett Till

    White House to establish national monument honoring Emmett Till

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    The White House will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till — the 14-year-old Chicago boy whose abduction, torture and lynching in 1955 while visiting family in Mississippi played a role in sparking the civil rights movement — and his late mother. 

    CBS News has learned that President Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday, the 82nd anniversary of Till’s birth, establishing the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. 

    The monument will be located across three sites in Mississippi and Illinois, CBS News learned. One will be located in the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in the Chicago South Side neighborhood of Bronzeville, where Till’s killing was mourned in September 1955.

    emmett-till.jpg
    A photo of Emmett Till is included on the plaque that marks his gravesite at Burr Oak Cemetery in Aslip, Illinois. May 4, 2005 

    Scott Olson/Getty Images  


    The second site will be at Graball Landing, Mississippi, where Till’s body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River.

    The third will be at Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Till’s suspected killers were acquitted by an all-White jury less than a month after his brutal murder.

    In August of 1955, Carolyn Bryant Donham, a White woman working as a grocery clerk, accused Till of making improper advances towards her while she was alone in her store in Money, Mississippi.

    Three days later, Till was abducted from his relatives’ home. Then on Aug. 31, 1955, three days after his abduction, his mutilated body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River.

    The following month, Donham’s husband, Roy Bryant — along with Roy’s half-brother J.W. Milam — were both acquitted of murder charges in Till’s death. They both later confessed in a 1956 magazine interview.

    In 2022, a grand jury in Mississippi declined to prosecute Carolyn Donham for her role in the events that led to Till’s lynching. Prior to that, in 2021, the Justice Department announced that it was ending its investigation into the case.

    Carolyn Donham died in April at the age of 88.

    At the time of her death, Till’s cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., told CBS News in a statement that even though no one would be held to account for his cousin’s death “it is up to all of us to be accountable to the challenges we still face in overcoming racial injustice.”

    —Cara Tabachnick contributed to this report.

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  • Biden Will Establish A National Monument Honoring Emmett Till, The Black Teen Lynched In Mississippi

    Biden Will Establish A National Monument Honoring Emmett Till, The Black Teen Lynched In Mississippi

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    WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till, the Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a white woman in Mississippi, and his mother, a White House official said Saturday.

    Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday to create the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument across three sites in Illinois and Mississippi, according to the official. The individual spoke on condition of anonymity because the White House had not formally announced the president’s plans.

    Tuesday is the anniversary of Emmett Till’s birth in 1941.

    The monument will protect places that are central to the story of Till’s life and death at age 14, the acquittal of his white killers and his mother’s activism. Till’s mother’s insistence on an open casket to show the world how her son had been brutalized and Jet’s magazine’s decision to publish photos of his mutilated body helped galvanize the Civil Rights Movement.

    Biden’s decision also comes at a fraught time in the United States over matters concerning race. Conservative leaders are pushing back against the teaching of slavery and Black history in public schools, as well as the incorporation of diversity, equity and inclusion programs from college classrooms to corporate boardrooms.

    On Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris criticized a revised Black history curriculum in Florida that includes teaching that enslaved people benefited from the skills they learned at the hands of the people who denied them freedom. The Florida Board of Education approved the curriculum to satisfy legislation signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who has accused public schools of liberal indoctrination.

    “How is it that anyone could suggest that in the midst of these atrocities that there was any benefit to being subjected to this level of dehumanization?” Harris asked in a speech delivered from Jacksonville, Florida.

    DeSantis said he had no role in devising his state’s new education standards but defended the components on how enslaved people benefited.

    “All of that is rooted in whatever is factual,” he said in response.

    The monument to Till and his mother will include three sites in the two states.

    The Illinois site is Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, a historically Black neighborhood on Chicago’s South Side. Thousands of people gathered at the church to mourn Emmett Till in September 1955.

    The Mississippi locations are Graball Landing, believed to be where Till’s mutilated body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Till’s killers were tried and acquitted by an all-white jury.

    Family photos show Emmett Till. During the summer of 1955. Till was murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi. (Ovie Carter/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)

    Chicago Tribune via Getty Images

    Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi when Carolyn Bryant Donham said the 14-year-old Till whistled and made sexual advances at her while she worked in a store in the small community of Money.

    Till was later abducted and his body eventually pulled from the Tallahatchie River, where he had been tossed after he was shot and weighted down with a cotton gin fan.

    Two white men, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were tried on murder charges about a month after Till was killed, but an all-white Mississippi jury acquitted them. Months later, they confessed to killing Till in a paid interview with Look magazine. Bryant was married to Donham in 1955. She died earlier this year.

    The monument will be the fourth Biden has created since taking office in 2021, and just his latest tribute to the younger Till.

    For Black History Month this year, Biden hosted a screening of the movie “Till,” a drama about his lynching.

    In March 2022, Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act into law. Congress had first considered such legislation more than 120 years ago.

    The Justice Department announced in December 2021 that it was closing its investigation into Till’s killing.

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  • White Artist Reassures Self That People Will Love Painting Of Emmett Till Dunking Basketball

    White Artist Reassures Self That People Will Love Painting Of Emmett Till Dunking Basketball

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    NEW YORK—Pushing away any lingering concerns that the portrait might stir up unintended controversy, white artist Daniel Immelmann reportedly reassured himself Tuesday that people would love his portrait of Emmett Till dunking a basketball. “Obviously, everyone who sees Emmett Till bravely dunking over a white defender in my painting will get that it’s about the struggle of Black people in America,” Immelmann is said to have told himself, waving away any remaining hesitation about the piece as he noted that he had specifically shown Till smiling and wearing Air Jordans during his dunk to ensure that his message about Black excellence was clear. “There’s no way you can look at Emmett Till going for an alley-oop while Rosa Parks and W.E.B. Du Bois give him the thumbs-up from their courtside seats and see it as anything other than a statement of support for the Black community and everything they’ve been through. People will love this. Of course they will. I don’t know why I’m getting so worked up over it.” At press time, Immelmann reported feeling confused about why he was getting beat up outside his gallery opening.

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  • Family of Emmett Till files lawsuit demanding sheriff arrest Carolyn Bryant Donham | CNN

    Family of Emmett Till files lawsuit demanding sheriff arrest Carolyn Bryant Donham | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    In a federal lawsuit filed earlier this week, a family member of Emmett Till is demanding that Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks serve an arrest warrant from 1955 on Carolyn Bryant Donham for her role in the death of Till.

    Last year, a five-member search group, including members of Till’s family found an unserved 1955 arrest warrant for Bryant at the Leflore County courthouse.

    Till, a 14-year-old boy from Chicago, was visiting family in Mississippi when he had his fateful encounter with then-20-year-old Carolyn Bryant. Accounts from that day differ, but witnesses alleged Emmett whistled at Bryant (now Donham) at the market she owned with her husband in Money, Mississippi.

    Later, her husband, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, took Till from his bed and ordered him into the back of a pickup truck and beat him before shooting him in the head and tossing his body into the Tallahatchie River. They were both acquitted of murder following a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett grabbed and verbally threatened her.

    In 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict Donham on any charges.

    “It was Carolyn Bryant’s lie that sent Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam into a rage, which resulted in the mutilation of Emmett Till’s body into a [sic] unrecognizable condition,” the newly filed lawsuit states.

    “The Leflore County Sheriff is complicit in the trio’s escape from justice even though both Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam admitted to the crime,” it continued.

    “To this day, the warrant issued for Carolyn Bryant remains unserved. Carolyn Bryant’s whereabouts are known. This action is being brought in order to compel the Lelfore County Sheriff to serve the warrant upon Carolyn Bryant,” it added.

    CNN has reached out to Banks for comment.

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  • Updates on Proud Boys trial, an honor for Emmett Till, Rep. Santos controversy

    Updates on Proud Boys trial, an honor for Emmett Till, Rep. Santos controversy

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    Updates on Proud Boys trial, an honor for Emmett Till, Rep. Santos controversy – CBS News


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    CBS News congressional correspondent Scott MacFarlane joins us from Capitol Hill to discuss the trial of several Proud Boys on charges of seditious conspiracy related to the Jan. 6 riot. He also details a prestigious honor for the late Emmett Till and his mother, and the latest developments in the controversy surrounding Rep. George Santos.

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  • Activist and Congressman Bobby Rush retiring after decades in House

    Activist and Congressman Bobby Rush retiring after decades in House

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    Activist and Congressman Bobby Rush retiring after decades in House – CBS News


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    A Chicago political legend, Bobby Rush held firm control of a seat in the U.S. House for 30 years with a backstory unlike any other. At 76, Rush is ready to step back. Scott MacFarlane takes a look at his career.

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  • Emmett Till And His Mother Posthumously Awarded Congressional Gold Medal

    Emmett Till And His Mother Posthumously Awarded Congressional Gold Medal

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    Congress has passed legislation to posthumously award Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, with the Congressional Gold Medal.

    The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Congressional Gold Medal Act of 2021, which is now awaiting President Joe Biden’s signature, passed in the House of Representatives on Wednesday. It passed unanimously in the Senate nearly a year ago, on Jan. 10.

    The Congressional Gold Medal is an award given by Congress to highlight and show national appreciation for distinguished achievements and contributions. Congress has given the medal to fewer than 180 notable historical figures, pioneers and leaders in U.S. history. Recipients have included Rosa Parks, Mother Teresa and the Wright brothers.

    Till was a Black 14-year-old who was kidnapped and lynched in 1955 by two white men in Mississippi after he was accused of whistling at a white woman. His mother, who died in 2003, insisted that he have an open casket, so as to make clear the brutality of her son’s death and the racism and injustice that led to it. Till’s death is today considered a catalyst of the American civil rights movement.

    The congressional award will be on display near Till’s casket at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C., according to NPR.

    “[Till’s] brutal murder still serves as a reminder of the horror and violence experienced by Black Americans throughout our nation’s history,” Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said in a press release. “The courage and activism demonstrated by Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, in displaying to the world the cruelty endured by her son helped awaken the nation’s conscience, forcing America to reckon with our failure to address racism and the glaring injustices that stem from such hatred.”

    An extensive report on lynching conducted by the Equal Justice Initiative concluded there were nearly 6,500 documented racial terror lynchings in the U.S. between 1865, the year the Civil War ended, and 1950. Many historians believe the actual number of lynchings has been underreported, since the killings were not formally tracked. Mississippi, which had the highest recorded number of lynchings between 1882 and 1968, dedicated a statue to Till in October.

    In March, Biden signed into law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, effectively making lynching a federal hate crime offense. According to The Associated Press, this is the first anti-lynching law in U.S. history, following almost 200 failed attempts to pass such legislation.

    “The horrendous lynching of Emmett Till and the legacy of his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, should never be forgotten. This legislation allows us to remember the Till family and the over 4,700 victims of lynching who experienced racial terror in this country,” Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said in a press release. “This is a meaningful step in the right direction of addressing our past, acknowledging mistakes, and using those lessons to better ourselves and our country.”

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  • AP Breakthrough Entertainer: Danielle Deadwyler goes all in

    AP Breakthrough Entertainer: Danielle Deadwyler goes all in

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    By JAKE COYLE

    December 16, 2022 GMT

    NEW YORK (AP) — Just the idea of playing Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, was enough to make Danielle Deadwyler pause to consider the toll such a role might take.

    “You go: What’s going to happen to me?” Deadwyler says. “What are the steps that you need to take to make sure you can do this to the best of your ability and come out on the other side where you still got all your ABCs and your chemical dynamics together?”

    Playing Till-Mobley meant immersing herself in one of the ugliest chapters of American history, when the 14-year-old Till was lynched in 1955 Mississippi. Just the scene Deadwyler would audition with — when Mamie first sees her son’s brutalized corpse — was wrenching. On Deadwyler’s shoulders would lie the responsibility of history, of honoring Till-Mobley and of reflecting a grief known to generations of Black mothers. Deadwyler gathered her resolve.

    “I wanted to be the person to bear the weight,” Deadwyler says.

    In Chinonye Chukwu’s “Till,” Deadwyler gives one of the most powerful and intensely expressive performances of the year, charting Till-Mobley’s profound metamorphosis into civil-rights leader. Deadwyler, herself, is undergoing a transformation. In her first lead role in a film, the 40-year-old Deadwyler has come through the other side of playing Mamie with her equilibrium intact but some changes to those internal “dynamics.” For her, there will be before, and after, “Till.”

    “Life is just different,” says Deadwyler. “It’s learning a new selfhood. Art is self-revelation.”

    Deadwyler has been making her mark for several years in series like “Station Eleven” and “Atlanta,” and in the Western “The Harder They Fall.” But her performance as Mamie — a portrait of private grief and public awakening — has catapulted her fame. It’s made Deadwyler a top contender for best actress at the Academy Awards, and an easy choice to be among The Associated Press’ Breakthrough Entertainers of 2022.

    Deadwyler, who until recently was filming the Jaume Collet-Serra thiller “Carry On” in Atlanta, has been too busy to soak it up much. When she won for best lead performance last month at the Gotham Awards, Chukwu accepted the prize for her. But with a string of nominations, there are other award shows looming for Deadwyler.

    “Whatever happens, happens,” Deadwyler says. “I’ll show up and try to look cute.”

    Chukwu had spent months searching for an actor to play Mamie before Deadwyler’s self-taped audition blew her away.

    “I feel like a lot of us have been sleeping on her incredible talent,” says Chukwu. “I hope that this film can help a hell of a lot more people see the brilliance that’s always existed.”

    Deadwyler, who grew up in Atlanta, immediately recognized in Till-Mobley’s story things to identify with, as a mother and as, she says, “a child of the civil rights legacy.” She was raised in the Cascade United Methodist Church and was a student volunteer with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization co-founded by Martin Luther King Jr. “I’ve known this story my whole life,” she says.

    But getting into the interior of Till-Mobley was a learning process, even if some aspects of the character were painfully familiar. The film begins with Till-Mobley’s apparent trepidation at sending her son — a sunny, confident young man — into the ’50s South.

    “I have a son who’s soon to be 13 years old. I’ve had to have the same conversations that Mamie has had to have, not wanting to take away the lightness or the light of who they are,” says Deadwyler. “So many Black mothers are having that conversation. Black parents in general are reckoning with how to empower our children and admonish them, keep them buoyant and free and yet deeply aware.”

    While shooting “Till,” Chukwu found that so much of the drama could be told in Deadwyler’ eyes and face. So she would strip down scenes. When Till-Mobley memorably takes the stand in her son’s Mississippi trial, the camera stays rooted to Deadwyler.

    “After one take, my cinematographer and I looked at each other and we were like, ‘Damn. We might not need everything else because Danielle is so captivating in communicating all the beats, all of the emotional tension,’” says Chukwu. “It can be its own act of resistance in who you decide to put the camera in front of and who you decide not to put the camera in front of.”

    After shooting “Till,” Deadwyler needed a month of rest, therapy and acupuncture to rehabilitate. “I had to rebuild,” she says. “Make new choices.”

    But she’s found that discussing the film, heavy as its issues are, has also been healing. One of Till-Mobley’s most important decisions was to allow Till’s maimed body to be photographed in an open casket, images that captured the barbarism of American racial injustice and stoked the civil-rights movement. “They had to see what I had seen,” Till-Mobley wrote in her 2003 memoir. “The whole nation had to bear witness.”

    “It’s a joy to talk about it because then I get a release. That’s what Mamie said. She said talking about Emmett, talking about her experience was healing for her,” says Deadwyler. “So she did it as much as she could. She did it until the day she died. She wanted to be not the only person talking about it.”

    ___

    Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

    ___

    For more on AP’s 2022 class of Breakthrough Entertainers, please visit: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-breakthrough-entertainers

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  • Kentucky Christmas parade canceled amid threats to protestors calling for Emmett Till accuser’s arrest | CNN

    Kentucky Christmas parade canceled amid threats to protestors calling for Emmett Till accuser’s arrest | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Bowling Green, Kentucky, has canceled its annual Christmas parade scheduled for Saturday due to threats against protests related to the notorious lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955.

    The city announced the cancellation in tweet. In a video posted on Facebook, Police Chief Michael Delaney said at least three groups planned to protest at noon on Saturday at two locations.

    Warren County Sheriff Brett Hightower said his office learned of threats late Friday evening “to shoot anyone who is protesting” or assisting protesters, Hightower said.

    “At this moment, we have not been able to determine the validity of the threat; however, we believe it’s important to alert our citizens,” the sheriff said.

    The protesters want a Mississippi court to order the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman now in her late 80s who accused Till of whistling at her in 1955 in Mississippi, according to CNN affiliate WBKO. He was abducted, tortured, and lynched, in a case that drew national attention and helped galvanize attention on the civil rights movement.

    According to WKBO, Donham’s last known address is believed to be an apartment in Bowling Green.

    Donham was never arrested in connection with Till’s death, but a warrant for her arrest was found earlier this year in a Mississippi courthouse basement. A grand jury in Mississippi declined to indict Donham in August.

    The Bowling Green-Warren County NACCP said it is not slated to protest Saturday.

    “This is due in part to safety concerns for the event, as well as focusing our energies on those who are currently being discriminated against and need immediate assistance,” the organization said in a statement last week.

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  • ‘Black Adam’ tops box office again on quiet weekend

    ‘Black Adam’ tops box office again on quiet weekend

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    NEW YORK — On a quiet weekend in movie theaters before the upcoming release of “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” Warner Bros.’ “Black Adam” topped the box office for the third straight weekend with $18.5 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday.

    “Black Adam,” Dwayne Johnson’s bid to launch a new DC Films superpower, has surpassed $300 million globally in three weeks of release, including a domestic tally of $137.4 million. That puts the $195 million-budgeted film — the third film this year to lead the box office three consecutive weeks — on a trajectory to likely surpass the $366 million that “Shazam!” grossed in 2019, but less certain to notch a profit in its theatrical run.

    When Walt Disney Co.’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” lands in theaters Thursday, it’s expected to score one of the biggest opening weekends of the year. Ryan Coogler’s original debuted with more than $200 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters in 2018, and forecasts suggest it could open with around $175 million.

    With “Wakanda Forever” looming, only one new film opened in wide release: “One Piece Film: Red,” distributed by Sony Picture’s anime division, Crunchyroll. The Japanese anime sequel, part of the “One Piece” franchise, debuted in second place with $9.5 million. While not as robust as the openings of Crunchyroll’s “Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero, which garnered, $21.1 million in August, or Funimation’s “Jujutsu Kaisen 0: The Movie,” which earned $18 million in March, “Red” again showed that anime is proving an uncommonly dependable draw in North American theaters. The 15th film in the franchise but the first to be released widely in the U.S., “Red” attracted an especially young audience, with about 75% of ticket buyers between ages 18-34.

    Third place went to “Ticket to Paradise,” the George Clooney and Julia Roberts romantic comedy. The Universal Pictures release collected $8.5 million in its third weekend, bringing the $60 million-budgeted rom-com’s cumulative total to $46.7 million domestically and $137.2 million worldwide. For a genre that’s struggled in theaters in recent years, “Ticket to Paradise” is showing staying power, especially as the favored choice for older audiences.

    Even with Halloween coming and going, Paramount Pictures’ “Smile” also continued to hold well in theaters. In its sixth week of release, the horror flick added another $4 million to bring it to $99.1 million overall.

    Some of the year’s top Oscar contenders have struggled to make much of an impact in wide release. James Gray’s “Armageddon Time,” a coming-of-age tale set in 1980s New York, expanded to 1,006 theaters in its second week, grossing $810,000 for Focus Features. Focus’ “Tár,” starring Cate Blanchett as a renowned conductor, took in $670,000 in 1,090 theaters for a five-week total of $3.7 million. MGM’s “Till,” about Mamie Till-Mobley’s pursuit of justice for her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, added $1.9 million in 2,316 theaters for a four-week gross of $6.6 million.

    Best of the bunch so far has been Searchlight Pictures’ “The Banshees of Inisherin,” starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as rowing Irish friends. It took in $3 million in 895 locations in its third weekend of release, brining its global total to $10.2 million.

    ———

    Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

    1. “Black Adam,” $18.5 million.

    2. “One Piece Film: Red,” $9.5 million.

    3. “Ticket to Paradise,” $8.5 million.

    4. “Smile,” $4 million.

    5. “Prey for the Devil,” $3.9 million.

    6. “Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile,” $3.4 million.

    7. “The Banshees of Inisherin,” $2 million.

    8. “Till,” $1.9 million.

    9. “Halloween End,” $1.4 million.

    10. “Terrifier 2,” $1.2 million.

    ———

    Follow AP Film Writer Jake Coyle on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/jakecoyleAP

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  • Chinonye Chukwu, Whoopi Goldberg on importance of Emmett Till’s story today

    Chinonye Chukwu, Whoopi Goldberg on importance of Emmett Till’s story today

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    Chinonye Chukwu, Whoopi Goldberg on importance of Emmett Till’s story today – CBS News


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    Writer-director Chinonye Chukwu and producer-star Whoopi Goldberg join “CBS Mornings” to discuss their new film, “Till,” which tells the story of the 1955 murder of Emmett Till, and his mother’s activism after his death.

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  • ‘Change has come’: Mississippi unveils Emmett Till statue

    ‘Change has come’: Mississippi unveils Emmett Till statue

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    GREENWOOD, Miss. (AP) — Hundreds of people applauded — and some wiped away tears — as a Mississippi community unveiled a larger-than-life statue of Emmett Till on Friday, not far from where white men kidnapped and killed the Black teenager over accusations he had flirted with a white woman in a country store.

    “Change has come, and it will continue to happen,” Madison Harper, a senior at Leflore County High School, told a racially diverse audience at the statue’s dedication. “Decades ago, our parents and grandparents could not envision that a moment like today would transpire.”

    The 1955 lynching became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago so the world could see the horrors inflicted on her 14-year-old son. Jet magazine published photos of his mutilated body, which was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi.

    The 9-foot (2.7-meter) tall bronze statue in Greenwood’s Rail Spike Park is a jaunty depiction of the living Till in slacks, dress shirt and tie with one hand on the brim of a hat.

    The rhythm and blues song, “Wake Up, Everybody” played as workers pulled a tarp off the figure. Dozens of people surged forward, shooting photos and video on cellphones.

    Anna-Maria Webster of Rochester, New York, had tears running down her face.

    “It’s beautiful to be here,” said Webster, attending the ceremony on a sunny afternoon during a visit with Mississippi relatives. Speaking of Till’s mother she said: “Just to imagine the torment she went through — all over a lie.”

    Mississippi has the highest percentage of Black residents of any state, now about 38%. Democratic U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, whose district encompasses the Delta, noted that Mississippi had no Black elected officials when Till was killed. He said Till’s death helped spur change.

    “But you, know, change has a way of becoming slower and slower,” said Thompson, the only Black member of Mississippi’s current congressional delegation. “What we have to do in dedicating this monument to Emmett Till is recommit ourselves to the spirit of making a difference in our community.”

    The statue is a short drive from an elaborate Confederate monument outside the Leflore County Courthouse and about 10 miles (16 kilometers) from the crumbling remains of the store, Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market, in Money.

    The statue’s unveiling coincided with the release this month of “Till,” a movie exploring Till-Mobley’s private trauma over her son’s death and her transformation into a civil rights activist.

    The Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., the last living witness to his cousin’s kidnapping, wasn’t able to travel from Illinois for Friday’s dedication. But he told The Associated Press on Wednesday: “We just thank God someone is keeping his name out there.”

    He said some wrongly thought Till got what he deserved for breaking the taboo of flirting with a white woman, adding many people didn’t want to talk about the case for decades.

    “Now there’s interest in it, and that’s a godsend,” Parker said. “You know what his mother said: ‘I hope he didn’t die in vain.’”

    Greenwood and Leflore County are both more than 70% Black and officials have worked for years to bring the Till statue to reality. Democratic state Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood secured $150,000 in state funding and a Utah artist, Matt Glenn, was commissioned to create the statue.

    Jordan said he hopes it will draw tourists to learn more about the area’s history. “Hopefully, it will bring all of us together,” he said.

    Till and Parker had traveled from Chicago to spend the summer of 1955 with relatives in the deeply segregated Mississippi Delta. On Aug. 24, the two teens took a short trip with other young people to the store in Money. Parker said he heard Till whistle at shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant.

    Four days later, Till was abducted in the middle of the night from his uncle’s home. The kidnappers tortured and shot him, weighted his body down with a cotton gin fan and dumped him into the river.

    Jordan, who is Black, was a college student in 1955 when he drove to the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner to watch the murder trial of two white men charged with killing Till — Carolyn’s husband Roy Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam.

    An all-white, all-male jury acquitted the two men, who later confessed to Look magazine that they killed Till.

    Nobody has ever been convicted in the lynching. The U.S. Justice Department has opened multiple investigations starting in 2004 after receiving inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living.

    In 2007, a Mississippi prosecutor presented evidence to a grand jury of Black and white Leflore County residents after investigators spent three years re-examining the killing. The grand jury declined to issue indictments.

    The Justice Department reopened an investigation in 2018 after a 2017 book quoted Carolyn Bryant — now remarried and named Carolyn Bryant Donham — saying she lied when she claimed Till grabbed her, whistled and made sexual advances. Relatives have publicly denied Donham, who is in her 80s, recanted her allegations. The department closed that investigation in late 2021 without bringing charges.

    This year, a group searching the Leflore County Courthouse basement found an unserved 1955 arrest warrant for “Mrs. Roy Bryant.” In August, another Mississippi grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict Donham, causing consternation for Till relatives and activists.

    Although Mississippi has dozens of Confederate monuments, some have been moved in recent years, including one relocated in 2020 from the University of Mississippi campus to a cemetery where Confederate soldiers are buried.

    The state has a few monuments to Black historical figures, including one honoring civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer in Ruleville.

    A historical marker outside Bryant’s Grocery has been knocked down and vandalized. Another marker near where Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River has been vandalized and shot. The Till statue in Greenwood will be watched by security cameras.

    Jordan won applause when he said Friday: “If some idiot tears it down, we’re going to put it right back up.”

    ___

    Follow Emily Wagster Pettus on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EWagsterPettus.

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  • Mississippi town with Confederate monument gets bronze Emmett Till statue

    Mississippi town with Confederate monument gets bronze Emmett Till statue

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    Emmett Till’s family attends Twin Cities Film Fest screening of “Till”


    Emmett Till’s family attends Twin Cities Film Fest screening of “Till”

    02:07

    A Mississippi community with an elaborate Confederate monument plans to unveil a larger-than-life statue of Emmett Till on Friday, decades after white men kidnapped and killed the Black teenager for allegedly whistling at a white woman in a country store.

    The 1955 lynching became a catalyst for the civil rights movement after Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open-casket funeral in Chicago so the world could see the horrors inflicted on her 14-year-old son. Jet magazine published photos of his mutilated body, which had been pulled from the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi.

    till.jpg
    Emmett Till

    The 9-foot bronze statue in Greenwood is a jaunty depiction of the living Till in slacks, a dress shirt and a tie, with one hand on the brim of a hat.

    The Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., the last living witness to the kidnapping of his cousin Till from a family home, said he won’t be able to travel from Illinois to attend Friday’s dedication ceremony. But he told The Associated Press on Wednesday: “We just thank God someone is keeping his name out there.”

    The Till statue at Greenwood’s Rail Spike Park is a short drive from an elaborate Confederate monument outside the Leflore County Courthouse and about 10 miles from the crumbling remains of the store, Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market in the hamlet of Money.

    The unveiling of the statue coincides with the release this month of “Till,” a movie focusing on Till-Mobley’s private trauma over her son’s death and her development into a civil rights activist.

    “It is mixed emotions because this is a true story. It’s our family you’re gonna see on screen,” Deborah Watts, a cousin of Emmett Till, told CBS Minnesota Thursday at the Twin Cities Film Fest. Watts attended the film festival screening of the film with her daughter Teri.

    “It shows Emmett. It humanizes him, and that’s what we want the world to see. We want to see Mamie’s journey, the love that she had for her son as well,” said Teri Watts. “She is an American hero. This tragedy happened, it’s part of our DNA of America, and so we want to be able to let the world know. She was just 33 years old. A young mother of a child that was murdered.”

    A life-sized bronze statue of Till-Mobley is also planned in the Chicago suburb of Summit. An Oct. 28 groundbreaking is set for a plaza outside Argo Community High School, where she was an honor student. The statue is scheduled to be in place by late April.

    Some wrongly thought Till got what he deserved for breaking the taboo of flirting with a white woman and many people didn’t want to talk about the case for decades, Parker said.

    “Now there’s interest in it, and that’s a godsend,” Parker said. “You know what his mother said: ‘I hope he didn’t die in vain.’”

    Greenwood and Leflore County are both more than 70% Black and officials have worked for years to bring the Till statue to reality. Democratic state Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood secured $150,000 in state funding and the community commissioned a Utah artist, Matt Glenn, to create the statue.

    Jordan said he hopes it will entice tourists to visit Greenwood and learn more about the history of the area.

    “So much has been said about this case,” Jordan said this week. “Hopefully, it will bring all of us together.”

    Till and Parker had traveled from Chicago to spend the summer of 1955 with relatives in the deeply segregated Mississippi Delta. On Aug. 24, the two teens joined other young people in a short trip to the store in Money. Parker said he heard Till whistle at shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant.

    Four days later, Till was abducted in the middle of the night from his uncle’s home. The kidnappers tortured and shot him, weighted his body down with a cotton gin fan and dumped him into the river.

    Jordan, who is Black, was a college student in September 1955 when he drove to the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner to watch the murder trial of two white men charged with killing Till — Carolyn’s husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother, J.W. Milam.

    An all-white, all-male jury acquitted the two men, who later confessed to Look magazine that they had killed Till.

    Nobody has ever been convicted in the lynching. The U.S. Justice Department has opened multiple investigations starting in 2004 after receiving inquiries about whether charges could be brought against anyone still living.

    In 2007, a Mississippi prosecutor presented evidence to a grand jury of Black and white Leflore County residents after investigators spent three years re-examining the killing. The FBI exhumed Till’s body to prove he, and not someone else, was buried at his gravesite in the Chicago suburb of Alsip. The grand jury declined to issue indictments.

    The Justice Department reopened an investigation in 2018 after a 2017 book quoted Carolyn Bryant — now remarried and named Carolyn Bryant Donham — saying she lied when she claimed Till grabbed her, whistled and made sexual advances. Relatives have publicly denied Donham, who is in her 80s, recanted her allegations. The department closed that investigation in late 2021 without bringing charges.

    This year, a group searching the Leflore County Courthouse basement found an unserved 1955 arrest warrant for “Mrs. Roy Bryant.” In August, another Mississippi grand jury found insufficient evidence to indict Donham, causing consternation for Till relatives and activists.


    Grand jury declines to indict woman in Emmett Till killing

    00:25

    Although Mississippi has dozens of Confederate monuments, some have been moved in recent years, including one that was relocated in 2020 from a prominent spot on the University of Mississippi campus to a cemetery where Confederate soldiers are buried.

    The state has a few monuments to Black historical figures, including one honoring civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer.

    A historical marker outside Bryant’s Grocery has been knocked down and vandalized. Another marker near the site where Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River has been vandalized and shot. The Till statue in Greenwood will be watched by security cameras.

    “Anytime they take it down,” Jordan said, “we’ll just place it back up.”

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  • Mamie Till depiction seen as tribute to Black female leaders

    Mamie Till depiction seen as tribute to Black female leaders

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    NEW YORK (AP) — Gwen Carr sat up straight in her seat as she heard lines of dialogue delivered by the actor portraying Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy whose lynching in Mississippi in 1955 catalyzed the U.S. civil rights movement.

    “As I watched that film, I became Mamie Till,” Carr said last month at a private advance screening of “ Till,” the Orion Pictures and United Artists biopic that debuted Friday as the first ever feature length retelling of the historic atrocity and Till-Mobley’s pursuit of justice for Emmett.

    Carr is the mother of Eric Garner, a Black man held in a fatal chokehold by a New York City police officer in 2014, during an encounter that began as an arrest for alleged unauthorized sale of cigarettes. His videotaped final gasps for air, viewed millions of times around the world, was an early flashpoint of the Black Lives Matter movement. She demanded that her fellow countrymen not look away or dismiss Garner as another casualty of an unjust policing system, but to instead see him as a reason to reform that system, similar to Till-Mobley’s message.

    “I’ll tell anybody, ‘A mother can tell a child’s story better than anybody else,’” Carr said. “And that’s what she said in that movie.”

    As “Till” debuts, the studio and production companies behind the film have partnered in a campaign to recognize Black women and Black mothers who are continuing Till-Mobley’s legacy and fight for justice, equality and equity. From civil rights and politics to business and performance art, the campaign includes events and screenings in select cities across the U.S. that honor the courageous works of Black women whose contributions have historically been overlooked, deemphasized or made a footnote.

    Codie Elaine Oliver, a filmmaker and co-creator of the Oprah Winfrey Network docuseries “ Black Love,” was a featured speaker at a screening event on Tuesday in Los Angeles, along with TV personality and writer Natalie Manual Lee, who hosts the YouTube series “ Now with Natalie.” Both women are mothers to young Black children and said Till-Mobley’s story guides the work they do in their respective fields.

    “I try to live every day, recognizing the pain of my ancestors, parents and grandparents, by being a storyteller who consciously showcases (Black people) as loving husbands and fathers and mothers and wives,” Oliver said. “I have not experienced what (Till-Mobley) experienced, but I recognize that any of us could, especially as Black mothers.”

    In the late summer of 1955, Till-Mobley put Emmett on a train from Chicago to visit with his uncle and cousins in her native Mississippi. Much like Black women and men today give their children “the talk” about navigating traffic stops and other encounters with police officers, Till-Mobley warned Emmett that he was visiting a place where his safety depended on his ability to mute his outgoing, uncompromising nature around white people.

    “Self-assured, confident about a future without limitations, he must have gazed out at the wide-open spaces of the Mississippi Delta in amazement,” Till-Mobley wrote of her son in a 2003 memoir co-authored with Christopher Benson. Emmett was “completely unaware of the boundaries that had begun to close in on him as soon as he got off that train.”

    In the overnight hours of Aug. 28, 1955, Emmett was taken from his uncle’s Mississippi home at gunpoint by two vengeful white men. Emmett’s alleged crime? Flirting with the wife of one of his kidnappers.

    Three days later, a fisherman on the Tallahatchie River discovered the teenager’s bloated corpse — one of his eyes was detached, an ear was missing, his head was shot and bashed in. Till-Mobley demanded that Emmett’s remains be taken back to Chicago for a public, open casket funeral that was attended by tens of thousands. And at the trial of his killers in Mississippi, which ended in their acquittals, Till-Mobley bravely took the witness stand to counter the perverse image of her son that had been painted for jurors and trial watchers.

    Throughout the film, Till-Mobley is portrayed as a woman full of a sense of foreboding about sending her only child away to a place plagued by racial hatred. But her immense love for Emmett overpowers her pain and grief, at least enough to find a sense of purpose and meaning. In a 1995 interview with The Associated Press, 40 years after her son’s lynching, Till-Mobley, a woman of faith, said God had sent Emmett to Earth for the special assignment of waking up the nation and the world.

    “The humanity and the brilliance of her, and how selfless of her as a Black woman to have stepped into this role as a figure of mourning and possibility,” said Danielle Deadwyler, who portrays Till-Mobley in the film. “If she did not have the courage to do that, then we would not have known, and the world probably would not have known, the ramifications of racism. She made us all aware.”

    The mission to spread Emmett’s story, as only a mother could, had immediate impacts. The civil rights movement gained momentum. Rosa Parks, the civil rights figure arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955, said she was motivated that day by the injustice in Emmett’s case. And a decade after Emmett’s death, Till-Mobley’s involvement in the movement helped spur passage of landmark federal civil rights and voting rights legislation.

    Till-Mobley died of heart failure in Chicago in 2003, ahead of the release of her memoir. All told, the impact of her civil and human rights advocacy has spanned over six decades. In March, after numerous failed attempts in Congress over a 120-year span to make lynching a federal crime, President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act.

    The example of Till-Mobley’s sacrifice and persistence continues to fuel Black women like Lee, the YouTube host.

    “I think that there was a bridge between fear and faith for her and, in that in-between, she grabbed on to courage, strength, grace and mercy,” Lee said. “That convicted me. She wasn’t waiting on anybody else. She used what was in her hands to fulfill the call on her life.”

    Nse Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization working to increase voter participation among historically marginalized Georgians, said “Till” is a long overdue “thank you” to Black women who have been inspired by Till-Mobley’s story.

    “It’s a love letter to Black mothers and a love letter to Black women — an acknowledgment of the ways in which we show up in community, at work, in defense of Black lives,” Ufot said. “I hope that Black women see themselves in the story, and that their love cups get a little bit poured into it, as we go out and face the world.”

    ___

    Associated Press news researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed.

    ___

    Aaron Morrison is a New York City-based member of AP’s Race and Ethnicity team. Follow him on Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/aaronlmorrison.

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