July 25 marked what would have been Emmett Till’s 84th birthday. It is also now the anniversary of President Joe Biden’s establishment of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument.
To mark the occasion, the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund held a “Monuments & Justice” webinar that touched on the efforts to create the national monument. Panelists focused on the important role monuments and preservation can play in encouraging a national reckoning with and healing from America’s racial history.
The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument spans two states and three sites: Graball Landing in Glendora, Mississippi; the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi; and the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago. These locations represent where Till’s body was found along the Tallahatchie River, the courthouse where two white men were acquitted by an all-white jury of Till’s lynching, and the church that hosted his funeral —which included an open casket viewing, a horrifying reflection of the violence visited upon the child. The monument is managed by the National Park Service.
At the time of the designation last year, the White House said the monument “builds on the Biden-Harris Administration’s work to advance civil rights and racial justice, including through the President’s signing of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act that codified lynching as a federal hate crime. The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument is President Biden’s fourth new national monument, and reflects the Administration’s commitment to protecting places that help tell a more complete story of our nation’s history.”
Earlier this year, efforts to restore and preserve the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ — a site etched into the memory of so many due to the wrenching images from Till’s funeral there — began with efforts to return the sanctuary and exterior of the building to their original condition. Built in 1922, the church most recently had 1990s-era masonry that covered the original facade. The project will also include stabilization and rehabilitation efforts for the church.
“Last fall, the project team conducted preliminary investigation and opened parts of the facade, which revealed the existence of original masonry and windows,” a press release from the Action Fund stated earlier this year. “The full removal has revealed significant findings, confirming the condition of the original masonry and steel and wood windows and other character-defining features such as painted brick and crosses.” Restoration efforts are scheduled to begin this fall.
The project has received preservation funding from the Action Fund and its signature partner, the Mellon Foundation.
Dr. Marvel Parker, executive director of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute, said these monuments are about more than telling the story of Till’s death. They’re a place for remembering and celebrating his life, too.
Parker said Till-Mobley, on her deathbed, asked her and her husband, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., to continue making sure Emmett’s death wasn’t in vain. “In agreeing to do that, what has happened is not only have we been instrumental in preserving the legacy of Emmett Till, but we’re also preserving the legacy of Mamie Till-Mobley. Her heroism is what has caused us to understand and know the story of Emmett,” she said.
“By preserving, restoring and interpreting sites of African American achievement and resilience, the Action Fund is helping to ensure that future generations see, experience and have access to this history and these stories,” Dr. Elizabeth Alexander, president of the Mellon Foundation, said during the webinar.
Despite the efforts of activists such as Till-Mobley, Dr. Justin Hopkins, a psychologist and founder of Hopkins Behavioral Health, likened the way the country has dealt with its history of racial violence to “societal PTSD.” In this heightened state, he said in the webinar, the memory of our country’s racial history and trauma are perceived as dangerous as the events themselves. “This is, in part, why white Americans and law enforcement so readily may fear Black skin, [and explains] the efforts to ban our books and curriculum,” he said. “Our trauma is being passed down from generation to generation unhealed. What’s at stake is just continued suffering. We can’t avoid what’s happening. We either deal with the truth or the truth will keep dealing with us.”
Hopkins says he learned from working with veterans that patients who experienced trauma were more likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder if they exhibit symptoms of avoidance.
“Being healed is wonderful, but the process of healing is disruptive. It’s uncomfortable. And it’s often painful,” he said. “To heal trauma, you have to confront your worst memories and experiences. You have to interact with your own anguish, which we understandably may want to avoid.”
Parker said PTSD is a condition her family knows literally and intimately. “That’s something my husband was victimized by for 50 years,” she said.
The Rev. Parker was Till’s cousin and is the last surviving witness to his abduction. He was 16 years old at the time. Parker said her husband lived in a state of denial for several decades, even after attending Till’s funeral. “He did not accept that that was Emmett’s body in the casket. He never cried. He never felt any sorrow because he rejected that that was him. He said, ‘I’m going to see him again,’” she said.
When Till’s body was exhumed in 2005, the Parkers left the country and went to Puerto Rico. When they returned, the reverend presided over Till’s graveside recommittal service. “It was the most difficult thing that I’ve seen him do [and] I’ve been married to him for 56 years now,” she said. Finally, the Rev. Parker has begun to process his trauma and even cry.
“At 84, he says, ‘I’m too old to be crying now,’ but it’s cathartic and it’s a healing process for him, but it has taken all of this time for him to begin to heal,” she said.
Hopkins said monuments such as the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument can provide a space for collective healing for those who are “brave enough to bear witness.”
Avoidance, he argued, is something that Americans have collectively practiced because it’s much easier than reckoning with reality. “This is where our monuments come in because when used to accurately depict the events of history, they can be our mirrors. They can give us a window into who we are. Nothing helps us understand the present like the past.”
This is a good time to tune into the sensations within your body, he said. Recognize the tightening of your muscles, the constricting of your stomach or any shortened breaths and “make meaning of it.”
He added: “I wonder if, at our sites, we can somehow invite people to just try to be present with what’s happening inside their bodies so that they can do the individual work that they need to do to confront their trauma and actually heal.”
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a program that makes an important and lasting contribution to the American landscape by preserving sites of African American activism, achievement, and resilience.
