National Trust for Historic Preservation: Return to home page

On Tuesday, July 25, 2023, President Joseph Biden created the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. This action memorializes Chicago’s Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, and Graball Landing, creating a national monument of conscience, memory, and justice to continue telling a fuller and more accurate American story.

In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till left Chicago to visit family in the Mississippi Delta, where he was abducted and lynched on August 28. His body was recovered at Graball Landing on the banks of the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi.

The proceeding trial of J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant for Emmett’s murder, held at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, demonstrated the injustice of the time as both men were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Emmett Till’s murder might have gone unnoticed by the general public if not for the courage of Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, who decided to “let the world see what I have seen” by holding an open-casket visitation and funeral for her son at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, Illinois.

Emmett’s murder shocked the conscience of the nation and illuminated the reality of racial violence in America. Mamie Till Mobley’s profound response, in a time of unimaginable anguish, galvanized the world to understand the plight of Black Americans in the South, catalyzing the Civil Rights Movement.

On July 25, 2023, President Biden designated multi-state national monument dedicated to Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley. By bestowing this designation on Graball Landing, the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, and Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, we will have an opportunity to acknowledge and reckon with our past—and an opportunity to tell the full American story.

Understanding Our Present Through the Lens of Our Past

The historic sites connected to Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley’s story represent a pivotal moment in the history of the United States, including how local people and communities shaped the fight for equality.

We at the National Trust believe that by leveraging historic preservation to protect and interpret the sites tied to Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley, we hold a crucial opportunity to face a more complete truth, gain knowledge, and reckon with the parts of our past that are painful in order to process and heal.

Preserving the Sites Connected to Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley

The National Trust’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has joined with local and national partners to protect and preserve the remaining sites connected to this crucial history. These partners include the Till Family, Roberts Family, Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute, Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ (also listed as one of America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places in 2020), National Parks Conservation Association, and the National Parks Foundation, Mellon Foundation, and Lilly Endowment Inc.

Since 2017, the Action Fund has invested nearly $750,000 in grant funding to:

• Chicago’s Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ to stabilize the church building and conduct real estate due diligence for the national monument designation;
• The Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, to expand programming and paid staff; and,
• The Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley House in Chicago to add staff and expand programming.

Through existing and new partnerships, the Action Fund and its signature partner, the Mellon Foundation, will together invest an additional $5 million to provide specialized preservation expertise to ensure that Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ is restored for continued use by the congregation and interpreted for local, national, and global audiences.

Stewarding in perpetuity historic Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, and Graball Landing is profoundly important and will require public and private investment, as well as a long-term approach that ensures the restoration, interpretation, and management of these exceptional historic assets.

The cost to fully restore and interpret Roberts Temple Church of God in Chris is more than $20 million. Please consider making a restricted donation to support the restoration of the church and the Action Fund’s ongoing project management.

Advocating for National Monument Designation

On Friday, October 21, 2022, Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, shared remarks at a community meeting hosted by the U.S. Department of Interior at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ. There, he urged President Biden to establish a site of conscience, memory, and justice to continue telling a fuller and more accurate American story.

We at the National Trust applaud President Biden for leveraging his executive authority to create a national monument that memorializes the historic Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ and the Mississippi sites connected to Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley. Join us in thanking President Biden for creating this new national monument!