On Tuesday, February 15, Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory, at the invitation of Congressman Bennie Thompson (D-MS), visited sites across the Mississippi Delta associated with Emmett Till’s life and murder to gather local input on the creation of a National Park dedicated to Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till Mobley.

Sites visited included the Tallahatchie County Courthouse and Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, the Tutwiler Funeral Home in Tutwiler, Mound Bayou, and the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center in Glendora. At each site, Secretary Haaland and Chair Mallory met with and listened to local residents.

The Tallahatchie County Courthouse was the site of the trial of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for Emmett’s murder. Over the last 15 years, the Tallahatchie County Board of Supervisors and the Emmett Till Memorial Commission partnered to restore the courthouse to its 1955 condition during the murder trial to act as a site of conscience. In 2007, the courthouse was added to the National Register of Historic Places and restoration of the building was complete in December 2020.

The Emmett Till Interpretive Center, in partnership with the Till family, launched an Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Park Campaign in March 2021 to support the creation of a National Park with multiple sites across the Mississippi Delta and at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago. To learn more about the Till National Park Campaign, visit TillNationalPark.org.

• Read the full Press Release from the Emmett Till Interpretive Center.
• Read more about Secretary Haaland’s visit via AP News.