you didn’t\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\nlearn in school\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\nAugust 28, 2015<\/p>\n
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Mamie Till Mobley<\/p>\n<\/span><\/strong><\/span>
\nby Justin Giuliano<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMamie Till Mobley, the mother of Emmet Till, was an instrumental voice in the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.\u00a0Emmet Till, the 14 year old boy\u00a0whose death at the hands of southern racists in 1955 was one of the sparks for the early civil-rights movement.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMamie Till grew up in Alabama & then later Chicago. She was an excellent student –\u00a0Mamie was the first black student to make the A Honor roll &\u00a0the fourth black student to graduate from the predominately white Argo Community High School. She met her husband, Louis Till, at age 18 & married him later that year. Nine months later, Emmett Till or “Bobo” as he was nicknamed, was born at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nEmmett would never know his father, who was shipped out to Europe as an Army private. Mamie &\u00a0Louis Till separated in 1942. Three years later, Mamie received a letter from the Department of Defense informing her, without a full explanation, that Till was killed in Italy due to “willful misconduct.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/static.wixstatic.com\/media\/07528e_3d39890270604a7684e4ac3674baab2f.jpg_srb_p_630_420_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBy the early 1950s, Mamie &\u00a0Emmett had moved to Chicago’s South Side.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn 1955 Mamie decided to take a long-awaited vacation to Nebraska to visit relatives. She wanted her son to go with her but Emmett was set on joining his cousins &\u00a0spending the end of the summer in Mississippi. When she put her son on a Southbound train, it was the last time she would see him alive.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nFourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, on August 24, 1955, when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, two white men kidnapped Till at 2:30 in the morning\u00a0from his house.\u00a0They then beat the teenager brutally, dragged him to the bank of the Tallahatchie River, shot him in the head, tied him with barbed wire to a large metal fan &\u00a0shoved his mutilated body into the water. Moses Wright, his relative, reported Till’s disappearance to the local authorities &\u00a0three days later, his corpse was pulled out of the river. Till’s face was mutilated beyond recognition &\u00a0his family\u00a0only managed to positively identify him by the ring on his finger, engraved with his father’s initials.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/static.wixstatic.com\/media\/07528e_aa547af20a584622abae199577ee116e.jpg_srb_p_630_355_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWhen her boy was killed, Mamie turned to the strength of her family &\u00a0faith.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n“When I began to make the announcement that Emmett had been found &\u00a0how he was found, the whole house began to scream &\u00a0to cry. &\u00a0that’s when I realized that this was a load that I was going to have to carry. I wouldn’t get any help carrying this load.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThough his body & face were beaten beyond recognition, Mamie Till decided to have an open casket funeral so that people could realize\u00a0what happened to Emmett.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n“I think everybody needed to know what had happened to Emmett Till.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSome 50,000 people streamed in to view Emmett’s corpse in Chicago, with many people leaving in tears or fainting at the sight &\u00a0smell of the body.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/static.wixstatic.com\/media\/07528e_30e5de6738f041428899b7f8faaed6c0.jpg_srb_p_630_488_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u00a0After the two white men were acquitted of murder\u00a0charges by an all-white\u00a0male jury, the case became an international spectacle. Mamie Till & the NAACP were hoping that at the very least, the men would be tried on kidnapping charges but the Mississippi senator ensured that Emmett Till wouldn’t receive justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe Mississippi senator, James O. Eastland, a staunch segregationist dug up info about Emmett Till’s father & leaked it to the press. Louis Till, Emmett’s father, was executed in 1945 for raping two Italian women & killing a third. James O. Eastland suggested that the behavior ran in the family & that Emmett was a danger to the white woman he flirted with. Mamie Till had not received word that this happened with her ex-husband & she was confused as to how the senator pulled up this information.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nDespite the overwhelming odds, Mamie Till attempted to meet with President Eisenhower, though he refused. The FBI even released a statement saying that none of Emmett Till’s rights had been violated.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nRather than giving up, Mamie Till travelled the country giving speeches & waking black people up to the injustices that were\u00a0present. Though she is not credited with it, she helped mobilize & start the Civil Rights Movement in many ways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/static.wixstatic.com\/media\/07528e_9576a0f8aad24d44beb0d3a40584dc6b.jpg_srb_p_260_361_75_22_0.50_1.20_0.00_jpg_srb\")
<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nMamie Till continued to organize & give speeches for the majority of her life. Though she passed away in early 2003, an autobiography titled\u00a0Death of Innocence: The story of the hate crime that changed America<\/a>\u00a0was released in 2004.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n“The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all.”<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nSources & additional resources:<\/span><\/p>\n–\u00a0PBS<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n– Progressive<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
August 28, 2015<\/p>\n
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Mamie Till Mobley<\/p>\n <\/span><\/strong><\/span> <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Mamie Till Mobley, the mother of Emmet Till, was an instrumental voice in the beginning of the Civil Rights movement.\u00a0Emmet Till, the 14 year old boy\u00a0whose death at the hands of southern racists in 1955 was one of the sparks for the early civil-rights movement.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mamie Till grew up in Alabama & then later Chicago. She was an excellent student –\u00a0Mamie was the first black student to make the A Honor roll &\u00a0the fourth black student to graduate from the predominately white Argo Community High School. She met her husband, Louis Till, at age 18 & married him later that year. Nine months later, Emmett Till or “Bobo” as he was nicknamed, was born at Cook County Hospital in Chicago.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Emmett would never know his father, who was shipped out to Europe as an Army private. Mamie &\u00a0Louis Till separated in 1942. Three years later, Mamie received a letter from the Department of Defense informing her, without a full explanation, that Till was killed in Italy due to “willful misconduct.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n By the early 1950s, Mamie &\u00a0Emmett had moved to Chicago’s South Side.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In 1955 Mamie decided to take a long-awaited vacation to Nebraska to visit relatives. She wanted her son to go with her but Emmett was set on joining his cousins &\u00a0spending the end of the summer in Mississippi. When she put her son on a Southbound train, it was the last time she would see him alive.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Fourteen-year-old Emmett Till was visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, on August 24, 1955, when he reportedly flirted with a white cashier at a grocery store. Four days later, two white men kidnapped Till at 2:30 in the morning\u00a0from his house.\u00a0They then beat the teenager brutally, dragged him to the bank of the Tallahatchie River, shot him in the head, tied him with barbed wire to a large metal fan &\u00a0shoved his mutilated body into the water. Moses Wright, his relative, reported Till’s disappearance to the local authorities &\u00a0three days later, his corpse was pulled out of the river. Till’s face was mutilated beyond recognition &\u00a0his family\u00a0only managed to positively identify him by the ring on his finger, engraved with his father’s initials.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n When her boy was killed, Mamie turned to the strength of her family &\u00a0faith.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “When I began to make the announcement that Emmett had been found &\u00a0how he was found, the whole house began to scream &\u00a0to cry. &\u00a0that’s when I realized that this was a load that I was going to have to carry. I wouldn’t get any help carrying this load.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Though his body & face were beaten beyond recognition, Mamie Till decided to have an open casket funeral so that people could realize\u00a0what happened to Emmett.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “I think everybody needed to know what had happened to Emmett Till.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Some 50,000 people streamed in to view Emmett’s corpse in Chicago, with many people leaving in tears or fainting at the sight &\u00a0smell of the body.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0After the two white men were acquitted of murder\u00a0charges by an all-white\u00a0male jury, the case became an international spectacle. Mamie Till & the NAACP were hoping that at the very least, the men would be tried on kidnapping charges but the Mississippi senator ensured that Emmett Till wouldn’t receive justice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Mississippi senator, James O. Eastland, a staunch segregationist dug up info about Emmett Till’s father & leaked it to the press. Louis Till, Emmett’s father, was executed in 1945 for raping two Italian women & killing a third. James O. Eastland suggested that the behavior ran in the family & that Emmett was a danger to the white woman he flirted with. Mamie Till had not received word that this happened with her ex-husband & she was confused as to how the senator pulled up this information.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite the overwhelming odds, Mamie Till attempted to meet with President Eisenhower, though he refused. The FBI even released a statement saying that none of Emmett Till’s rights had been violated.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Rather than giving up, Mamie Till travelled the country giving speeches & waking black people up to the injustices that were\u00a0present. Though she is not credited with it, she helped mobilize & start the Civil Rights Movement in many ways.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Mamie Till continued to organize & give speeches for the majority of her life. Though she passed away in early 2003, an autobiography titled\u00a0Death of Innocence: The story of the hate crime that changed America<\/a>\u00a0was released in 2004.\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n “The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all.”<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Sources & additional resources:<\/span><\/p>\n –\u00a0PBS<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n – Progressive<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n
\nby Justin Giuliano<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n