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Emmett Till alive, wearing a hat in a black-and-white portrait

PEOPLE WORTH GETTING TO KNOW

Emmett Till

1941–1955 · remembered through his life, family, and historical record

A Chicago child whose murder in Mississippi became a catalyst for civil-rights activism and public witness.

HistoryCivil rights
FIND EMMETT TILL

A CLOSER LOOK

The story behind it.

A Chicago child whose murder in Mississippi became a catalyst for civil-rights activism and public witness.

A child whose death became public witness

Till was fourteen when he was murdered in Mississippi in 1955. His mother’s decision to hold an open-casket funeral made the violence visible to a much wider public.

A remembered connection

Rosa Parks later recalled thinking of Till around the time of her refusal on the Montgomery bus. The thread preserves that remembered relationship between the events.

START HERE

Library of Congress · historical testimony (opens in a new tab)

Source for Emmett Till: Library of Congress · historical testimony.

Sources for this closer lookLibrary of Congress · historical testimony (opens in a new tab)Background & references (opens in a new tab)

FOLLOW THE CONNECTIONS

There’s a thread here.

HOPPER THREAD · 3 CONNECTIONS

A mother’s witness, a movement’s resolve

A decision to let the public see, a remembered child, an activist’s resolve, and a community that organized. The connections are real; none requires treating a movement as the work of only four people.

Mamie Till-Mobley seated beside her son Emmett, both smilingEmmett Till alive, wearing a hat in a black-and-white portraitBlack-and-white portrait of Rosa ParksColor close-up portrait of Martin Luther King Jr
Sources & credits

Introductions are grounded in the sources below. Collection notes and reading prompts provide an editorial starting point; personal opinions are identified in the collection’s content.

Emmett Till alive, wearing a hat in a black-and-white portrait

Image via Wikipedia · original image and credits linked from the source

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