WHAT IT IS
 

The Barn near Drew, MS, is the site where Emmett Till was beaten, tortured, and killed at the hands of multiple men on the morning of August 28, 1955. The Barn was rented to a relative of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, the two white men tried and acquitted for Emmett’s murder, despite admitting their guilt in a magazine article published a few months later.

 

Milam and Bryant were protected from being prosecuted for the murder again by double jeopardy laws. However, no one else involved in the kidnapping and murder had such protections. In their “confession,” Milam and Bryant changed the location of the murder to Glendora near Milam’s house and claimed no one else had been involved.

WHY IT MATTERS

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Despite eyewitness trial testimony affirming that Milam was at the Barn near Drew and the sounds of a beating were heard there on the same day as Emmett’s abduction, the magazine “confession” became the dominant narrative for more than sixty years. And so the Barn became just another barn, used for storage, maintained as a functional structure without regard for its historical significance.

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ETIC’S PURCHASE

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With a donation from Shonda Rhimes, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center was able to purchase the Barn in November 2025. Before the Barn, we installed the historic markers about Emmett Till throughout the Delta, we raised the money to restore the Tallahatchie County Courthouse to its 1955 condition, and we led the national campaign that resulted in the creation of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. ETIC’s commitment to truth ensures the Barn and the story it tells will not be subject to distortion or erasure.

ETIC’S INTENTION

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By 2030, the 75th anniversary of Emmett’s lynching, ETIC will open the Barn as a public memorial, a site of conscience where visitors can learn, remember, and reflect.