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Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley |
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Original name: Mamie Carthan
Social Reformer, Mother of Emmett Till. Emmett, her only son was 14 when he was murdered by Mississippi racists while visiting relatives there. Mrs. Till demanded that his battered body be brought home to Chicago, and she ordered it placed in a glass-topped coffin for all to see. For four days in September 1955, thousands of mourners passed through the Roberts Temple of the Church of God in Christ on Chicago's South State Street. It was the beginning of the civil rights movement. Following his son's death, she devoted herself to making sure that his death would not be in vain. Originally from Mississippi, Mrs. Mobley moved north to Argo, Ill. She later moved to Chicago, where she worked at a series of office jobs to support herself and her son. In the late summer of 1955, Emmett Till was invited by his uncle, Moses Wright, to visit relatives in Mississippi. Though his mother was concerned about sending her bright, chatty, citified son to the backwoods country around the Tallahatchie River, she allowed him to go. Six days later, Emmett Till disappeared. Roy Bryant, a white shop owner who believed Till had "sassed" his wife, and Bryant's half-brother, J. W. Milam, grabbed Till from his bed in Moses Wright's cabin. Three days later, Till's tortured remains were discovered by a Tallahatchie fisherman. Though Bryant later confessed to the lynching in an interview with Look magazine, both men were acquitted by an all-white jury. Mrs. Mobley became a civil rights crusader, building partnerships with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.and Rosa Parks, who would later tell her that memories of Emmett Till's murder inspired her refusal to give up her seat on a segregated bus. In her son's memory, Mrs. Mobley attended college, becoming a teacher and reading specialist for the Chicago Public Schools. She also founded the "Emmett Till Players," a youth theater group that produces civil rights-themed plays. He cause of death: Heart Failure.
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