Establishment of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till- Mobley National Monument, 48705-48714 [2023-16211]

Agencies

• Executive Office of the President

[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 144 (Friday, July 28, 2023)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 48705-48714]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-16211]




                        Presidential Documents 



Federal Register / Vol. 88, No. 144 / Friday, July 28, 2023 / 
Presidential Documents

___________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President

[[Page 48705]]

                Proclamation 10602 of July 25, 2023

                
Establishment of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-
                Mobley National Monument

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                The brutal lynching of Emmett Till in Mississippi in 
                1955 and the subsequent courage of his mother, Mamie 
                Till-Mobley, to ensure his death would not be in vain 
                helped bring broad national attention to the injustices 
                and inequality that Black people experienced during the 
                Jim Crow era across the United States and, in 
                particular, the South. The story--one that is shaped by 
                the fight for civil rights and the historic movement 
                called the Great Migration, during which millions of 
                Black people moved out of the South--is rooted in the 
                specific places where Emmett Till lived and traveled in 
                his too-short life: Chicago, where Mamie Till-Mobley 
                came with her family for better opportunities and then 
                mourned her son at the Roberts Temple Church of God in 
                Christ; and the Mississippi Delta, where Emmett Till 
                was murdered in an act of racial violence while 
                visiting relatives, where the recovery of his body is 
                memorialized at Graball Landing, and where his 
                assailants were wrongfully acquitted at the 
                Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse. These 
                places contain historic objects that illuminate the 
                complicated fabric of our Nation and the injustice and 
                inequality that Black people continue to experience 
                today. They are places where we can learn about and 
                reflect on the specific, painful events that ended 
                Emmett Till's life and the larger history of Black 
                oppression, resistance, and resilience, which 
                ultimately culminated in a movement that bent our 
                Nation's laws toward justice.

                The Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the 
                Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, Graball 
                Landing, and the objects located at those sites have 
                historic importance that arises from the roles that 
                Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley played in the birth 
                and early evolution of the Civil Rights Movement. Mamie 
                Till-Mobley was born Mamie Elizabeth Carthan near Webb, 
                Mississippi, in 1921. When Mamie was 2 years old, her 
                family moved to the suburb of Summit on the southwest 
                side of Chicago, Illinois, where her father found work 
                at the Argo Corn Products Refining Company.

                The Carthan family was one of many Black families who 
                left rural southern States and moved to urban 
                industrial centers in northern, midwestern, and western 
                States to escape racial violence and to pursue greater 
                economic and educational opportunities.

                On July 25, 1941, Mamie gave birth to Emmett Louis Till 
                at Cook County Hospital in Chicago. She raised Emmett 
                among his grandparents and extended family who lived 
                nearby.

                In August 1955, when Emmett was 14 years old and on 
                summer break from school, he convinced his mother to 
                let him visit their extended family who lived in the 
                Mississippi Delta. Along with his granduncle Moses 
                Wright and 16-year-old cousin Wheeler Parker, Jr., 
                Emmett boarded Illinois Central's City of New Orleans 
                train for the nearly 12-hour ride to Mississippi. Moses 
                Wright's oldest son, 16-year-old Maurice, met the trio 
                at the station in Grenada, Mississippi, and they made 
                the last 30 miles of the journey in the family's pickup 
                truck to stay at the Wrights' home outside rural Money, 
                Mississippi.

[[Page 48706]]

                On the evening of Wednesday, August 24, 1955, Emmett 
                joined his cousins--Maurice Wright, Wheeler Parker, 
                Jr., and 12-year-old Simeon Wright--and several of 
                their friends to buy candy at Bryant's Grocery and Meat 
                Market country store in Money.

                Carolyn Bryant, the white store clerk, claimed Emmett 
                made inappropriate advances toward her--a claim 
                disputed by Emmett's cousins and friends. According to 
                Till's cousin Wheeler Parker, Jr., 14-year-old Emmett 
                whistled at Bryant outside the store, which violated 
                the unwritten laws of segregated society in the 
                Mississippi Delta. The group quickly loaded back into 
                their vehicle and fled.

                At about 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, August 28, 1955, the 
                Wright family was awakened by two armed white men, 
                identified by Moses Wright as store owner Roy Bryant, 
                husband of Carolyn Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. 
                Milam. Moses Wright testified that the two men were 
                armed with a gun and a flashlight and were looking for 
                the ``boy that done the talking down at Money.'' The 
                two white men directed Emmett Till to get dressed, 
                abducted him from the Wright home, and drove away with 
                him. Moses Wright notified the county sheriff. Within 
                48 hours after the abduction, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant 
                were arrested on kidnapping charges, and the news of 
                Emmett Till's abduction began to hit newspapers locally 
                and in Chicago.

                On Wednesday, August 31, 1955, Emmett Till's body was 
                pulled from the Tallahatchie River near Graball Landing 
                in Tallahatchie County. Moses Wright confirmed that the 
                badly beaten body was that of his grandnephew, Emmett 
                Till.

                Emmett Till suffered a brutal murder. His body was 
                found with barbed wire tied around his neck and 
                attached to a 70-pound cotton gin fan. A 2005 autopsy, 
                prompted by the reopening of the investigation by the 
                Federal Bureau of Investigation, revealed fractures of 
                both of Emmett's wrists, a fracture of his left femur, 
                multiple fractures of his skull, and a gunshot wound to 
                the head.

                Almost immediately after Emmett's badly beaten body was 
                recovered, the county sheriff directed that he be 
                buried quickly. His body was prepared at the Tutwiler 
                Funeral Home and a grave was being dug at the local 
                Church of God in Christ cemetery in Money when Mamie 
                Till-Mobley contacted her Mississippi family, 
                interrupting the burial process and insisting that her 
                son's body be returned to Chicago.

                Mamie Till-Mobley met her son's body at the train 
                station in Chicago and confirmed his identity. Defying 
                orders from the Tutwiler Funeral Home to keep the 
                casket sealed, Mamie Till-Mobley decided to hold an 
                open-casket funeral. When the funeral director asked if 
                he should retouch Emmett's distorted face to make him 
                more presentable, Mamie Till-Mobley responded, ``Let 
                the world see what I've seen.''

                The funeral service for Emmett Till began Saturday, 
                September 3, 1955, at the Roberts Temple Church of God 
                in Christ in Bronzeville, a historically Black 
                neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. The church was 
                the first that Mamie Till-Mobley's mother attended when 
                she moved to Chicago, and it formed a central part of 
                the family's life and community. Roberts Temple played 
                a prominent role in Chicago's Black community: it was 
                considered the ``Mother Church'' in Northern Illinois 
                for the influential Church of God in Christ 
                denomination and served as a hub for social, spiritual, 
                and economic activities. The church grew considerably 
                during the Great Migration.

                When Mamie Till-Mobley arrived at the funeral service, 
                the church's 1,800 seats were overflowing, and an 
                estimated 5,000 additional mourners gathered along the 
                adjacent sidewalks, streets, church property, and 
                surrounding blocks. Due to the overwhelming turnout, 
                Mamie delayed Emmett's burial to allow more time for 
                mourners to pay their respects. Press estimates of the 
                crowd ranged from 10,000 on the first day to as many as 
                125,000 people over the 3 days before Emmett's burial 
                on Tuesday, September 6,

[[Page 48707]]

                1955. Today, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ 
                still stands as a prominent feature on State Street, as 
                it did in 1955.

                The trial for the murder of Emmett Till began just 
                weeks after his lynching, on September 19, 1955, at the 
                Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in 
                Sumner, Mississippi. Between 50 and 70 reporters 
                attended, representing southern newspapers such as the 
                Greenville Delta Democrat-Times and the Charleston 
                Mississippi Sun, as well as national media including 
                the New York Times, Newsweek, and the Nation. The 
                segregated courtroom, which has been painstakingly 
                restored to its appearance during the trial, required 
                Black reporters to sit behind a railing and at a table 
                separate from white reporters. Photos from the period 
                show a packed courtroom with a crowd gathering outside 
                open windows to hear the trial. The New York Times 
                described ``an atmosphere of controlled hostility'' in 
                the stifling heat of the 250-person courtroom. One 
                night during the trial, a cross was burned in front of 
                the hotel where the jurors were sequestered.

                Throughout the trial, the town of Mound Bayou, located 
                more than 30 miles and 2 counties away from the 
                courthouse, served as a safe haven for Mamie Till-
                Mobley, Black reporters, and members of the NAACP who 
                arrived in Mississippi. The State of Mississippi was 
                segregated, including Mound Bayou, which was an all-
                Black town founded in 1887 by and for Black people. 
                Hosting Mamie Till-Mobley and the NAACP at his home in 
                Mound Bayou, Dr. T.R.M. Howard provided tight security 
                with a checkpoint and round-the-clock guards to protect 
                the trial attendees. On September 23, 1955, after a 5-
                day trial, an all-white jury acquitted Roy Bryant and 
                J.W. Milam of Emmett Till's murder after just over an 
                hour of deliberation.

                In January 1956, following their acquittal, Bryant and 
                Milam gave a paid interview to Look magazine in which 
                they confessed to the murder, further underscoring the 
                miscarriage of justice. Eyewitness accounts that 
                additional people were involved in the kidnapping, 
                torture, and murder of Emmett Till were omitted from 
                the magazine article and never pursued by officials.

                The Graball Landing river site, located just outside 
                Glendora, Mississippi, is the area along the 
                Tallahatchie River where many believe Emmett Till's 
                body was recovered, although changes in river flows and 
                erosion since 1955 make it difficult to determine the 
                site with precision. Located where the Black Bayou 
                meets the Tallahatchie River, Graball Landing is a 
                natural break in the vegetation along the riverbank 
                that served as a steamboat landing until 1894 and 
                thereafter as a local fishing site. In the years that 
                followed Emmett Till's murder, Graball Landing became 
                the site of a community-led memorial. In 2008, the 
                Emmett Till Memorial Commission erected a memorial sign 
                at Graball Landing. Within 6 months, the sign was torn 
                down by vandals and thrown into the river. When a 
                replacement memorial sign was erected, it was not long 
                until the sign was riddled with bullet holes. A third 
                memorial sign was dedicated in 2018, and about a month 
                later, it too was scarred by gunfire. The current 
                memorial sign at Graball Landing was dedicated on 
                October 19, 2019--it is over an inch thick, weighs more 
                than 500 pounds, and is bulletproof.

                Emmett Till's torture and killing was one of at least 
                three other racially motivated murders in Mississippi 
                during the summer of 1955. Emmett was also among the 
                thousands of Black people killed by lynching in the 
                United States over the 100 years following the Civil 
                War. If Emmett Till had been buried in Mississippi, his 
                story might have been entombed along with him. His 
                mother's acts of resistance and bravery in demanding 
                her son's body be returned to Chicago and in holding an 
                open-casket service helped ensure Emmett's death was 
                not a statistic, but a spark to galvanize the Civil 
                Rights Movement in America. Months afterward, in 
                December 1955, Rosa Parks refused to surrender her bus 
                seat to a white man. She later explained, ``I thought 
                of Emmett Till and I couldn't go back.''

                The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., too, would 
                cite Emmett Till in his sermons. He later recollected: 
                ``Emmett Till, a mere boy, unqualified to vote, but 
                seemingly used as a victim to terrorize Negro citizens 
                and

[[Page 48708]]

                keep them from the polls. While the blame for the 
                grisly mutilation of Till has been placed upon two 
                cruel men, the ultimate responsibility for this and 
                other tragic events must rest with the American people 
                themselves. It rests with all of us, black and white, 
                who call ourselves civilized men. For democracy demands 
                responsibility, courage, and the will-to-freedom from 
                all men.''

                For the remainder of her life, well into her 80s, Mamie 
                Till-Mobley furthered the memory of her son Emmett 
                through her work as an educator and activist, carrying 
                a message of healing, reconciliation, forgiveness, and 
                hope.

                Conserving the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, 
                the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse, and 
                Graball Landing will ensure that the historical value 
                of these sites will remain for the benefit of all 
                Americans, providing opportunities to learn about 
                Emmett Till's life and death and the historical and 
                cultural context interwoven with his story. Conserving 
                these places and the resources they contain will also 
                honor the bravery of Mamie Till-Mobley and other 
                Americans like her who, in the face of unimaginable 
                injustice, have helped lead us toward a more equal and 
                perfect Union.

                WHEREAS, section 320301 of title 54, United States Code 
                (the ``Antiquities Act''), authorizes the President, in 
                his discretion, to declare by public proclamation 
                historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric 
                structures, and other objects of historic or scientific 
                interest that are situated upon the lands owned or 
                controlled by the Federal Government to be national 
                monuments, and to reserve as a part thereof parcels of 
                land, the limits of which shall be confined to the 
                smallest area compatible with the proper care and 
                management of the objects to be protected; and

                WHEREAS, Graball Landing has long been recognized as 
                the location where Emmett Till's body was recovered 
                from the Tallahatchie River and, more recently, as a 
                memorial site to inform and educate the public about 
                Emmett Till's murder; and

                WHEREAS, the memorial signs placed at Graball Landing 
                to inform the public about Emmett Till's murder have 
                their own important role in civil rights history, 
                including through their repeated defacement and 
                replacement, and thus are themselves significant 
                cultural and historic objects; and

                WHEREAS, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ 
                marks the location of a historic event when tens of 
                thousands of people came together, overflowing from the 
                church into the surrounding sidewalks and streets, to 
                mourn the murder of a 14-year-old boy and honor the 
                strength of his mother and, in recognition of this, the 
                church was designated as a Chicago Landmark by the City 
                of Chicago Commission on Chicago Landmarks on March 29, 
                2006; and

                WHEREAS, the Tallahatchie County Second District 
                Courthouse is nationally significant based on its 
                association with the history of Jim Crow, the dawn of 
                the Civil Rights Movement, and the site of the Emmett 
                Till murder trial in September 1955; and was designated 
                as a Mississippi Landmark on February 28, 1990, and 
                added to the National Register of Historic Places on 
                March 6, 2007; and

                WHEREAS, James Walker Sturdivant has donated to the 
                Federal Government for the purpose of establishing a 
                unit of the National Park System fee interest in 
                approximately 4.31 acres of land in the area known as 
                Graball Landing adjacent to the Tallahatchie River; and

                WHEREAS, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, 
                with the support of the National Trust for Historic 
                Preservation, has donated to the Federal Government for 
                the purpose of establishing a unit of the National Park 
                System a Conservation Easement consisting of 
                approximately 0.27 acres over 2 parcels, which includes 
                the historic Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ 
                (Church Building); a Preservation and Use Easement 
                consisting of a lot of approximately 0.09 acres over 
                the property immediately adjacent

[[Page 48709]]

                to the Church Building; and fee interest in 
                approximately 0.55 acres of land currently used as the 
                church parking lot--all of which encompass land where 
                crowds gathered in September 1955; and

                WHEREAS, Tallahatchie County has donated to the 
                National Park Foundation fee interest in the 
                Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse and the 
                associated Emmett Till Interpretive Center building 
                across the street, totaling approximately 0.48 acres; 
                and

                WHEREAS, the National Park Foundation has relinquished 
                and conveyed all of these lands and interests in lands 
                associated with the Tallahatchie County Second District 
                Courthouse and the Emmett Till Interpretive Center 
                building to the Federal Government for the purpose of 
                establishing a unit of the National Park System; and

                WHEREAS, the designation of a national monument to be 
                administered by the National Park Service would 
                recognize the historic significance of the Roberts 
                Temple Church of God in Christ, the Tallahatchie County 
                Second District Courthouse, and Graball Landing, 
                particularly the events that transpired at these 
                locations related to the life and death of Emmett Till, 
                his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, and the Civil Rights 
                Movement, and would provide a national platform for 
                preserving and interpreting this important history; and

                WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to preserve and 
                protect the objects of historic interest associated 
                with the story of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley and 
                the birth of the American Civil Rights Movement in 
                Illinois and Mississippi;

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, JOSEPH R. BIDEN JR., President of 
                the United States of America, by the authority vested 
                in me by section 320301 of title 54, United States 
                Code, hereby proclaim, set apart, and reserve as the 
                Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument 
                (monument), the objects identified above and all lands 
                and interests in lands owned or controlled by the 
                Government of the United States within the boundaries 
                described on the accompanying maps entitled ``Emmett 
                Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument 
                Boundary,'' which are attached to and form a part of 
                this proclamation, for the purpose of protecting those 
                objects. The reserved Federal lands and interests in 
                lands within the monument's boundaries encompass 
                approximately 5.7 acres, which is the smallest area 
                compatible with the proper care and management of the 
                objects to be protected.

                All Federal lands and interests in lands within the 
                boundaries of this monument are hereby appropriated and 
                withdrawn from all forms of entry, location, selection, 
                sale, leasing, or other disposition under the public 
                land laws, including withdrawal from location, entry, 
                and patent under the mining laws, and from disposition 
                under all laws relating to mineral and geothermal 
                leasing. The establishment of this monument is subject 
                to valid existing rights, including the July 21, 2023, 
                deed for parcel 20-03-106-036 in Chicago with reserved 
                rights for parking. Lands and interests in lands within 
                the monument's boundaries not owned or controlled by 
                the United States shall be reserved as part of the 
                monument, and objects identified above that are 
                situated upon those lands and interests in lands shall 
                be part of the monument, upon acquisition of ownership 
                or control by the United States.

                The Secretary of the Interior shall manage the monument 
                through the National Park Service, pursuant to 
                applicable legal authorities and consistent with the 
                purposes and provisions of this proclamation. For the 
                purpose of preserving, interpreting, and enhancing the 
                public understanding and appreciation of the monument, 
                the Secretary of the Interior, through the National 
                Park Service, shall prepare a management plan for the 
                monument. The management plan shall ensure that the 
                monument fulfills the following purposes for the 
                benefit of present and future generations: (1) to 
                preserve the historic and cultural resources within the 
                boundaries of the monument; (2) to interpret the story 
                of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley and its 
                significance to the fight against racism and the 
                dismantling of Jim Crow;

[[Page 48710]]

                and (3) to commemorate the birth of the Civil Rights 
                Movement. The National Park Service shall develop the 
                management plan in consultation with local communities, 
                organizations, and the general public in the regions of 
                the monument to set forth the desired relationship of 
                the monument to and support for other sites evaluated 
                in the Mississippi Civil Rights Special Resources Study 
                such as the Glendora Cotton Gin (currently known as the 
                Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center), Mound Bayou, and 
                the Tutwiler Funeral Home, as well as sites in Chicago 
                such as the Emmett Till Boyhood Home.

                The National Park Service shall consult with 
                appropriate Federal, State, and local agencies and 
                nongovernmental organizations in planning for 
                interpretation and visitor access and services at the 
                monument.

                The National Park Service is directed, as appropriate, 
                to use applicable authorities to seek to enter into 
                agreements with other entities to address common 
                interests and promote management efficiencies, 
                including the provision of visitor services, 
                interpretation and education, establishment and care of 
                museum collections, and preservation of historic 
                objects. These entities may include, in Illinois, the 
                Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the 
                Bronzeville-Black Metropolis National Heritage Area, 
                and the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute; 
                and, in Mississippi, the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid 
                Center, the County of Tallahatchie, the Mississippi 
                Delta National Heritage Area, and the Emmett Till 
                Interpretive Center.

                Nothing in this proclamation shall be deemed to revoke 
                any existing withdrawal, reservation, or appropriation; 
                however, the monument shall be the dominant 
                reservation.

                Warning is hereby given to all unauthorized persons not 
                to appropriate, injure, destroy, or remove any feature 
                of this monument and not to locate or settle upon any 
                of the lands thereof.

                IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this 
                twenty-fifth day of July, in the year of our Lord two 
                thousand twenty-three, and of the Independence of the 
                United States of America the two hundred and forty-
                eighth.
                
                
                    (Presidential Sig.)

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[FR Doc. 2023-16211
Filed 7-27-23; 8:45 am]
Billing code 4310-10-C