Emmett Till's Legacy Kept Alive 70 Years After His Brutal Murder

ALSIP, IL — Seventy years after Mamie Till-Mobley lifted the coffin lid on the mutilated body of her 14-year-old son, Emmett, and exposed the brutality of racism in America to the world, the community gathered Thursday at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, to mark the 70th anniversary of Till’s lynching death, which ignited the Civil Rights movement.

It was one of dozens of observances around the country commemorating the Chicago teen’s lynching death on Aug. 28, 1955, when Till was abducted, beaten and tortured by two white half-brothers because they said that Till wolf-whistled at a white woman.

On Wednesday, Till’s cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., the last living eyewitness to Till’s abduction, boarded the Amtrak Spirit of New Orleans at Chicago Union Station, retracing the route he took with his cousin 70 years ago, to Mississippi. Parker was 16 when he and Till went to spend time with his grandfather and Till’s great-uncle, Mose Wright outside of Money, MS — a visit that would seal Till’s fate.

Parker, 86, a pastor at the Argo Temple Church of God, said the only way for a Black person to survive in the south during the 1950s was to “abide by its mores and stay out of harm’s way.” Nobody in the family felt that Emmett was capable of doing that. He was too much of a jokester, fun-loving and free spirited, yet he was still allowed to visit his great-uncle.

"You didn't die in vain, and you still speak from the grave. And we are going to carry on your legacy," Parker told ABC7 Chicago before boarding a train. “It shouldn't be a story. It shouldn't have happened. In 2025, we’re still telling it because it's some people that don't believe it.”

The solemn ceremony at Burr Oak was as much a reflection on Till’s death, as Mamie Till-Mobley’s bravery and defiance. Ordered not to display his body publicly by Mississippi authorities, Mamie insisted that her son’s casket be opened, after his eye was gouged out and his face beaten beyond recognition. Till had also been shot and thrown into the Tallahatchie, weighed down by a 70-pound cotton gin fan tied to his body by barbed wire.

Ollie Gordon, wearing a tan T-shirt bearing her cousin Emmett’s face, said it was important to keep having gatherings so that Till’s story will be remembered. Gordon said she was with her family and Mamie in Chicago, when they learned of Till’s abduction. She referred to her cousin as a “sacrificial lamb” for Civil Rights.

“We have to keep the story forefront, and that we remember Emmett,” Gordon said. “But then we are learning to protect those that came after Emmett.”

Rev. Cheryl Gathings, executive director of the Children of God Foundation, said Mamie’s decision to have an open casket to show her son’s mutilated body changed the world.

“That face in Jet Magazine forced the country to confront the brutality of racism,” Gathings said. “The people that had never seen that face throughout this country, the media on TV and newspapers, we would not be here today.”

After songs, poetry and prayers, Emmett and Mamie’s family laid flowers on Emmett’s grave site. They also offered prayers for the families of the children who were killed and injured in Wednesday’s mass shooting in Minnesota.

Pastor Dan Willis, pastor of Lighthouse Church of All Nations in Alsip that represents 72 nationalities, said his church office overlooks Burr Oak Cemetery. He said he heard about the wreath-laying ceremony on Patch.

“As the bishop of the largest multicultural ministry in Chicago, it is critically important to me being the church right across the street,” Willis said. “As I sit in my office, I often reflect on my 48 years of being pastor here, and that I do what I do because the remains of a young man like Emmett Till are literally yards away from my office. It pushes me to do what I do.”

The polarization of the country was also heavily on people’s minds. Thomas Irvin, one of the associated pastors at Morning Star Baptist Church in Kankakee, was involved in the Emmett Till commemoration. He told Patch that dissent is in his blood. He’s involved with MoveOn.org, Resist and Indivisible, and has joined protests downtown at the Daley Center.

“We as a country, and we as a people in this country, we got to rise up and speak out, because the direction we’re heading is devastation, it’s just creating more hate,” Irvin said. “ (If) people of good will, like Dr. King said, are silent, those who are evil minded progress. We got to join together and say no, we’re not going down that road of hate.”

The men arrested for Till’s murder, J.W. Milam and his younger half-brother, Ray Bryant were acquitted by an all-white jury a month later. They would later confess to a Look magazine reporter their own twisted version of the 14-year-old Chicago boy’s offenses, claiming he had reportedly wolf-whistled at Bryant’s wife.

Mamie Mobley-Till became a teacher and powerful advocate for civil rights. She died in 2003.

The Friends of Burr Oak Cemetery, who hosted Thursday's wreath-laying ceremony, are also endeavoring to get the historic Black cemetery and Emmett and Mamie Till’s graves on the National Register of Historical Places in Illinois, and have started an online petition on Change.org.

Tammy Gibson, a member of Friends of Burr Oak Cemetery, told Patch that the Chicago teen's grave will be disinterred and moved to a family crypt with his mother and stepfather near the front of the cemetery sometime this fall.