UNITED STATES — US President Joe Biden has signed a proclamation establishing a national monument to Emmett Till, the black teenager whose 1955 lynching galvanized the civil rights movement in the US.
Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, was also honored in the ceremony held at the White House on Tuesday, which would have been Till's 82nd birthday. Till's brutal killing in Mississippi and Mamie Till-Mobley's activism, including an open-casket funeral to show her son's mutilated body, led to a push to end segregation and racist laws.
The monument consists of three sites spanning two states, including the location where Till's body was discovered, the church where his funeral was held, and the site where the all-white jury acquitted the two men charged with his murder.
The monument's establishment also comes amid right-wing efforts to restrict the teaching of American history in public schools, particularly on issues of race. Last year, Biden also signed a law named after Till that made lynching a federal hate crime.
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