Crime & Law

Illinois Designates July 25 as Day of Remembrance for Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley

A new statewide day of reflection and remembrance aims to honor the life and legacy of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.

Gov. JB Pritzker joined legislators and community members Thursday at the location of Till’s funeral, Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Bronzeville, to sign legislation designating July 25, Till’s birthday, as a statewide day of reflection and remembrance for Till and his mother.

Till was a Black teenager from Chicago who was abducted, tortured and killed in 1955 after he was accused of whistling at a White woman in Mississippi. Till was 14 years old.

Following Till’s murder, his mother insisted on an open casket funeral to show his mutilated body. “Let the people see what they did to my boy,” Till-Mobley said at the time. The funeral at Roberts Temple Church in Chicago was attended by thousands of mourners. 

It was Till-Mobley’s insistence of an open casket, along with the photos of the funeral published by African American publications Jet Magazine and Chicago Defender, that helped propel the Civil Rights Movement. 

Till-Mobley died from heart failure in 2003. She was 81.

“If she was here, she’d be one happy soul,” the Rev. Wheeler Parker said about Till-Mobley during Thursday’s event. Parker traveled with his cousin Till from Chicago to Mississippi and was with him the night he was abducted. “Time went on and every time I saw his mother, I felt like I had a survivor’s guilt,” Parker said. “I came back and he didn’t come back.”

Gov. JB Pritzker joins legislators and community members at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago on July 23, 2026, to designate July 25 as Emmett Till Day in Illinois. (Courtesy of the state of Illinois)

Roberts Temple Church was designated as a national landmark in 2023 by former President Joe Biden as part of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. The sites of the national monument also include Graball Landing in Mississippi, where Till’s body was pulled from the Tallahatchie River, and the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where Till’s White killers were tried and acquitted by an all-White jury. 

Emmett Till’s childhood home in Woodlawn was designated a city landmark in 2021 and is currently undergoing restoration to be turned into a museum. 

“These sacred places will preserve the truth, educate future generations and ensure that Emmett’s story continues to be told, even as people in our national government are trying to erase our history,” state Rep. Kimberly du Buclet (D-Chicago) said.

State Sen. Elgie Sims (D-Chicago) said many of the injustices that took Till’s life remain: racism; inequities in education, healthcare and economic opportunities; and a justice system that fails to recognize the humanity and dignity of every person.

“Memory is an act of justice, and remembrance carries responsibility,” Sims said. “It’s not too late for the children who are growing up today. It’s not too late to teach the truth. It’s not too late to demand justice. It’s not too late to choose courage over silence.”

Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]

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