As “Till” debuts, the studio and production companies behind the film have partnered in a campaign to recognize Black women and Black mothers who are continuing Mamie Till-Mobley’s legacy and fight for justice, equality and equity.
From civil rights and politics to business and performance art, the campaign includes events and screenings in select cities across the U.S. that honor the courageous works of Black women whose contributions have historically been overlooked, deemphasized or made a footnote.
In the late summer of 1955, Till-Mobley put Emmett on a train from Chicago to visit with his uncle and cousins in her native Mississippi. Much like Black women and men today give their children “the talk” about navigating traffic stops and other encounters with police officers, Till-Mobley warned Emmett that he was visiting a place where his safety depended on his ability to mute his outgoing, uncompromising nature around white people.
Three days later, a fisherman on the Tallahatchie River discovered the teenager’s bloated corpse — one of his eyes was detached, an ear was missing, his head was shot and bashed in. Till-Mobley demanded that Emmett’s remains be taken back to Chicago for a public, open casket funeral that was attended by tens of thousands.
The mission to spread Emmett’s story, as only a mother could, had immediate impacts. The civil rights movement gained momentum. Rosa Parks, the civil rights figure arrested for refusing to give up her seat for a white passenger on a segregated bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in December 1955, said she was motivated that day by the injustice in Emmett’s case.
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