President Biden is set to designate a national monument across three sites to honor Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, who are both known as catalysts for the civil rights movement.

Momentous decision: President Biden is expected to sign the proclamation designating the monuments on what would have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday.
* The monument will be situated across three locations in Illinois and Mississippi.
* The locations were chosen to reflect the story of Till and the activism of his mother, who worked tirelessly to keep his story alive.

The history: Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy, was abducted, tortured, and killed by two white men in 1955 after he whistled at a white woman in a Mississippi grocery store.
* The woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, later confessed to lying about Till touching her.
* The two men involved, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, were acquitted but publicly confessed to the killing later on.

The monuments: The three sites chosen for the monument are all historically linked to the Emmett Till’s story.
* Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Till’s funeral service was held in 1955, will be included.
* Graball Landing in Mississippi, where Till’s body was believed to have been recovered from the Tallahatchie River, will also be part of the monument.
* The final location will be the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Mississippi, where Till’s killers were acquitted by an all-white jury.

Legacy in action: The decision to establish these monuments marks an acknowledgment of the historical significance of the Till case and its effects on the civil rights movement.
* Till’s mother’s decision to have an open-casket funeral for Till, showing his mutilated body, sparked widespread outrage and became a pivotal moment in civil rights history.

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