Mamie Till-Mobley and the Efforts of Young Black People in Movements for Black Lives
Brandon M. Erby
August 31, 2020
The story of Emmett Till consists of various details and moving parts. On the one hand, it is about the tragic lynching of a Black teenager and the culture of white supremacy that made the teen’s death not only possible but justifiable in a court of law. On the other hand, it is about protest and activism, and how one Black mother’s bold actions led to one of the most significant moments in civil rights history. This Black mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, is a central figure in the story of Emmett Till. Although Till-Mobley is commonly remembered for her decision to leave her son’s casket open so that people could bear witness to racial violence, her role in the Emmett Till saga did not end with this courageous task. For several decades after her son’s death, Till-Mobley cultivated another component of the Emmett Till narrative: the inclusion and participation of Black children and young people in the African American freedom struggle.
The different ways that Black youth contributed to the story of Emmett Till during the 1950s and 1960s are noteworthy. Young Black people sold and distributed the Jet magazines that contained the grotesque photograph of Till’s abused body. They signed petitions that demanded that the federal government pursue justice for Emmett Till. They learned about Till’s fate in “The Talk” and accompanied their parents to memorial services to view Till’s corpse. Till’s 1955 lynching persuaded many of these young people to join the movement for Black lives in the 1960s, and because of the profound effects that Till’s death had on young Black people, former SNCC activist and sociologist Joyce Ladner has referred to these civil rights trailblazers and organizers as members of the “Emmett Till Generation.” Ladner has argued that no other event influenced Black youth to join SNCC more than Emmett Till’s lynching. Even in the midst of terror, Black youth responded to Till’s killing by devoting themselves to social justice work.
Like Black adults, Black youth risked their lives to bring awareness to Emmett Till’s death and routinely received backlash for their brave actions. For instance, consider the deeds of Willie Reed, the Black teenager who testified during the murder trial of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. Reed revealed that he witnessed Till’s kidnapping, heard Till being beaten, and admitted that he had an encounter with Milam about what he had observed. Reed also identified Milam in court, which, like Moses Wright’s gesture, contested Mississippi’s racial hierarchy. Even though Reed had provided an eyewitness explanation of Till’s abduction and had recognized a perpetrator who was involved in the crime, the white defense attorneys disputed Reed’s identity as a reliable witness. They made sure to document in the court record that the eighteen-year-old had only a ninth-grade education, and they questioned Reed’s intelligence because they claimed that he could not describe the locations of Till’s whereabouts in an accurate manner.
After the trial, Reed relocated to Chicago and changed his last name because he legitimately feared for his life. He experienced difficulties with adjusting to a new city, suffered from anxiety, and was hospitalized after having a nervous breakdown. He also had nightmares about Till’s lynching and his role in the case regularly. Willie Reed’s involvement in the story of Emmett Till came with great costs, but his placement in the Till narrative did not end after his migration to Chicago. After the white defense attorneys relentlessly challenged Reed’s academic background and intellectual capabilities during the trial, the linguistic styles of Black speakers and educational opportunities afforded to Black youth in Mississippi became a critical subtopic of Emmett Till’s lynching. For example, when Mamie Till-Mobley toured the United States after her son’s death to rally others in his name, she referenced Reed in her addresses to explore the relationship between the United States’ educational system and national appeals for racial justice.
During an NAACP-sponsored demonstration in Baltimore, Maryland, on October 29, 1955, Till-Mobley delivered a speech that in part focused on the importance of raising, protecting, and investing in Black American children. Throughout her lecture, Till-Mobley described the identities of both Emmett Till and Willie Reed to explain how two blameless Black teenagers had been thrust into a crusade against racial oppression. According to Till-Mobley, Reed’s appearance at the trial was notable because he had watched her son’s kidnapping take place and had heard Till cry out to God and for his mother as he was being severely beaten. Till-Mobley relied on Reed’s account to compose an argument about her son’s innocence and his placement as the “sacrificial lamb” of a larger movement for Black rights. Till-Mobley also advanced the reports about Reed’s scholastic shortcomings, albeit for particular rhetorical purposes: she wanted to emphasize the educational disparities in the United States and assist the NAACP in their desegregation efforts after the Brown v. Board decision. From Till-Mobley’s perspective, Reed’s time on the witness stand illustrated how Black speakers were quickly discredited, and it also reflected how the American school system, particularly in the South, had failed Black students. Although white audiences considered Reed to be illiterate, Till-Mobley understood that the underlying issue was that numerous Black students did not have access to resourceful and impartial learning environments.
Mamie Till-Mobley’s interpretation of Reed’s testimony was one of her first undertakings that connected Emmett Till’s death to the educational achievements and sociopolitical engagements of Black youth. She remained committed to building her son’s legacy, teaching Black children in Chicago public schools, and helping Black youth become agents for social change in their local communities for nearly five decades. Till-Mobley’s founding and supervision of the “Emmett Till Players” is perhaps the strongest example of how these commitments intersected. The Emmett Till Players was a group of Black children who learned, memorized, and delivered the orations of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Till-Mobley expected members of the troupe to study Black history, sharpen their public speaking and literacy skills, and develop life-lessons about how to survive as Black adolescents in the United States. In naming the group after her martyred son, Till-Mobley acknowledged that the sacrifices and contributions of Black youth were necessary to improve the racial landscape of the country.
In this current age of Black Lives Matter, young Black people continue to be at the center of attention. Like Willie Reed, nineteen-year-old Rachel Jeantel was ridiculed during the 2013 trial of Trayvon Martin’s murderer, George Zimmerman. Jeantel was not a credible witness, some jurors reasoned, because she exhibited poor language and communication skills. When Mamie Till-Mobley left Emmett Till’s casket open, she stated that the world needed to see what happened to her son. Seventeen-year-old Darnella Frazier, who recorded the 2020 killing of George Floyd, made similar remarks about his death. One week after Floyd was murdered, his six-year-old daughter valiantly proclaimed that her father had changed the world.
After Diamond Reynolds filmed the 2016 police killing of her boyfriend, Philando Castile, her four-year-old daughter, who witnessed the shooting, attempted to calm Reynolds down by assuring her that she would protect her from any further danger. “It’s okay, mommy. I’m here with you,” the young girl uttered. And most recently, news coverage has been given to the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and how his three children watched in horror as an officer shot their father seven times in his back. The Black youth who have become associated with movements for Black lives are often burdened with trauma, but they continue to disrupt and engage. From the children mentioned above, to the WNBA and NBA players who refused to play their scheduled games, to the college athletes around the country protesting police brutality and discrimination, it is clear that young people are both spectators and orchestrators of racial and social justice initiatives.
In a July 2020 editorial published posthumously in the New York Times, Congressman John Lewis asserted that the deaths of George Floyd, Rayshard Brooks, Sandra Bland, and Breonna Taylor have galvanized young people into action as the photographs of Till mobilized him. Mamie Till-Mobley provided a blueprint for how to respond to acts of systemic racism, and she firmly believed that the images of her son’s brutalized corpse introduced Black youth to the countless injustices that affected the daily lives of African Americans. It appears that the young people of this generation have been taking notes.