Mike and Tina Small Keep the Story Alive for Mamie Till-Mobley
Mike Small currently serves on ETIC’s board. He and his wife, Tina, had become friends with Mamie Till-Mobley a few years before her passing, and Mike was the only white pallbearer asked to serve at her funeral in 2003. Inspired by the friendship they shared, Mike and Tina have been keeping the stories of Mamie and Emmett alive since.
Mike has been a history teacher since 1968, and on a 1999 trip to the Delta Blues Museum in Clarksdale, a quote on the wall about Emmett Till made him wonder if he and Tina could find the store Emmett visited in 1955, which they did. When he told the story of Emmett Till to his students days later, they were surprised that something like that had happened in the United States. One asked if Emmett’s mother was still alive. Like a good teacher, Mike answered that he didn’t know but he would find out.
A series of connections got him and Tina in touch with Mamie, and they overcame her reluctance to meet with the prospect of a hearty homemade Italian meal. Over the coming years, the three became much closer as they spent time together, such that Mike was the only white pallbearer asked to serve at Mamie's funeral.
“I’ve met five people in my lifetime that, when I was in a room with them, I felt that I was in a room with an extraordinary human being,” he said. “Mamie Till-Mobley is surely one of those people.”
Before Mamie passed, while they were in Mamie’s kitchen, she took Mike’s hand and said, “Can you make sure that you keep this story alive for me?” He made a promise that he would, one he and Tina have kept.
Around 2008, Mike became part of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, ETIC’s predecessor, as the multiracial group sought to break the silence in Tallahatchie County around Emmett’s murder. After ETMC Chairman Jerome Little passed, Mike and Tina continued with ETMC and then years later began working with ETIC, with Mike becoming a board member in 2022. He has also been a board member for the Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley Institute in Chicago since 2011.
Mike and Tina have traveled all over the world as others have requested their presence to learn about the stories of Emmett and Mamie. They generally didn't accept money for these speaking engagements except the cost of travel.
Beginning in 2024, as part of ETIC’s annual memorial service, roses were laid in the barn in honor of Emmett and Mamie. Mike and Tina decided to carry those roses to the graves of Emmett and Mamie in Burr Oak Cemetery outside of Chicago, a ritual they’ve performed every year thereafter. The hope is to one day raise enough money so Emmett’s burial plot can be moved and placed alongside his mother’s.
Mike recalled that when moving Mamie’s casket into its final resting place, there was some difficulty. He believed she was sending a message; she didn’t want her story or Emmett’s to end. But Mike and Tina have seen the difference the years have made—widespread coverage in the press, media features, the national monument, and more.
He said, “I don’t think she would ever imagine how alive [the story] is today.”
