(Courtesy of Alicia Odewale; Prints & Photographs Division – America National Red Cross Collection)

In her work, Tulsa-based archaeologist Alicia Odewale, Ph.D., is uncovering stories from Tulsa's Greenwood district, which was the site of a vicious racial attack in 1921.

(WTTW News)

In “A Few Days of Trouble: Revelations on the Journey to Justice for My Cousin and Best Friend, Emmett Till,” the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr. gives a firsthand account of those terrible days.

In this undated photo 14-year-old Emmett L.Till from Chicago is shown. Till, whose battered body, a bullet in his head, and a weight around his neck was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in 1955. (AP Photo, File)

The bill, which passed the Senate in January, is meant to honor Till and his mother — who had insisted on an open casket funeral to demonstrate the brutality of his killing — with the highest civilian honor that Congress awards. 

Anthony Michael Tamez and Nikki McDaid Barry appear on “Chicago Tonight” on Nov. 23, 2022.

Thanksgiving brings families and friends together across the country, but for many Native Americans it’s also recognized as the National Day of Mourning.

Juan Dies and Seán Cleland join their traditional Mexican and Irish music together. (WTTW News)

During the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848, a group of Irish immigrants deserted the U.S. Army to fight alongside Mexican soldiers. However remarkable the story might be, it’s a chapter of history that’s not especially well known in the U.S.

In this undated photo 14-year-old Emmett L.Till from Chicago is shown. Till, whose battered body, a bullet in his head, and a weight around his neck was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in 1955. (AP Photo, File)

A Mississippi community with an elaborate Confederate monument plans to unveil a larger-than-life statue of Emmett Till on Friday, not far from where white men kidnapped and killed the Black teenager.

This image released by Orion Pictures shows Jalyn Hall as Emmett Till, left, and Danielle Deadwyler as Mamie Till-Mobley in "Till." (Lynsey Weatherspoon/Orion Pictures via AP)

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 Till-Mobley’s legacy and fight for justice, equality and equity. 

(CNN)

To many, Queen Elizabeth's 70-year reign was a symbol of tradition and stability that linked the present to the past. But on her death, along with expressions of sympathy, many people from former colonies from Ireland to Kenya — and here in America — have pushed back on the glorification of the monarchy and empire.

This undated image provided by the U.S. Navy shows sailor Herbert “Bert” Jacobson, from Grayslake, Ill. The 21-year-old is to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery Tuesday, Sept. 13, 2022 — more than 80 years after he was killed in the Japanese attack of Pearl Harbor. (U.S. Navy via AP)

Members of Herbert “Bert” Jacobson’s family have waited all their lives to attend a memorial for the young man they knew about but never met. Jacobson was among the more than 400 sailors and Marines killed on the USS Oklahoma during the Dec. 7, 1941, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. 

An image featured in the exhibit “Handmaidens for Travelers: The Pullman Company Maids.” (Credit: Newberry Library)

The exhibit highlights both the benefits and challenges they experienced while traveling as Black women during the Jim Crow era.

Mayor Lori Lightfoot addresses the news media Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2021. (Heather Cherone/WTTW News)

The commission, which was formed more than two years ago in the wake of the social justice protests and unrest that erupted after the police murder of George Floyd, also recommended that the city remove the Italo Balbo monument as well as several monuments because of the way they depict Native Americans.

An empty pedestal in Grant Park in July 2020, where a statue of Christopher Columbus stood recently. (WTTW News)

In a statement released by her office, Lightfoot thanked Chicago’s Native American and Italian American communities for participating in the commission’s work, but did not address the future of the statues “regarded by many members of the Italian American community as a symbol of cultural pride” but considered “a bitter reminder of centuries of exploitation, conquest and genocide” to members of Chicago’s Native American community, according to the commission’s report.

An empty pedestal in Grant Park in July 2020, where a statue of Christopher Columbus stood recently. (WTTW News)

Mayor Lori Lightfoot vowed two years ago Friday to confront the “the hard truths of Chicago’s racial history” by using the city’s public spaces to memorialize the “city’s true and complete history.” That promise remains unfulfilled, 729 days later.

In this undated photo 14-year-old Emmett L.Till from Chicago is shown. Till, whose battered body, a bullet in his head, and a weight around his neck was pulled from the Tallahatchie River in 1955. (AP Photo, File)

After hearing more than seven hours of testimony from investigators and witnesses, a Leflore County grand jury last week determined there was insufficient evidence to indict Carolyn Bryant Donham on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter.

In this Aug. 26, 2020 file photo, the former home of Emmett and Mamie Till at 6427 S St. Lawrence Avenue is pictured in the West Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago. (Anthony Vazquez / Chicago Sun-Times via AP, File)
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A cultural preservation organization announced Tuesday that the house will receive a share of $3 million in grants being distributed to 33 sites and organizations nationwide that are important pieces of African American history.

In this Sept. 23, 1955, file photo, J.W. Milam, left, his wife, second from left, Roy Bryant, far right, and his wife, Carolyn Bryant, sit together in a courtroom in Sumner, Miss. (AP Photo, File)

In an unpublished memoir obtained by The Associated Press, Carolyn Bryant Donham says she was unaware of what would happen to the 14-year-old Till, who lived in Chicago and was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was abducted, killed and tossed in a river.