July 25, 2021 marks what should have been Emmett Till's 80th birthday, had he not been murdered in 1955 in the Mississippi Delta by a group of white men. The brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till shocked the nation, and his mother's brave choice to hold an open casket service, to "let the world see what I've seen," helped spark the American Civil Rights Movement. Today, the Till family in Chicago, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in the Mississippi Delta and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund are working together to preserve, restore, and interpret important sites associated with the life and murder of Emmett Till and the miscarriage of justice that followed. Join us to learn about the campaign to create an Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Park in Chicago and the Mississippi Delta.

 

Panelists:

• Dr. Marvel Parker, Project Director for the Roberts Temple Restoration Initiative and wife of Rev. Wheeler Parker, Jr., cousin of Emmett Till

• Christopher D'Angelo Benson, Associate Professor of Journalism at Northwestern University and co-author of Mamie Till-Mobley's autobiography Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America

• Benjamin Saulsberry, Public Engagement and Museum Education Director, Emmett Till Interpretive Center

• Dr. Dave Tell, Co-Director of the Institute for Digital Research in the Humanities at the University of Kansas and author of Remembering Emmett Till

• Moderated by Tiffany Tolbert, Associate Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, National Trust for Historic Preservation.