Emmett Till -- A 'Sacrificial Lamb' For Civil Rights
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,
Parker, 86, a pastor at the
"You didn't die in vain, and you still speak from the grave. And we are going to carry on your legacy,"
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, whose 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 Gordan, 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
"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
"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. "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, were acquitted by an all-white jury a month later. They
Mamie Mobley-Till because a teacher and a well-spoken and powerful advocate for civil rights.
