On a dusty summer day in August 1955, Mamie Till waved goodbye to her son as he boarded a bus from Chicago to visit relatives in Money, Mississippi.
It was the last time she would see him.
A white woman in Money falsely claimed that Emmett whistled at her and told her husband and his brother, who vowed revenge. Emmett’s shockingly disfigured body was discovered three days later – brutally beaten, shot, and dumped in a river.
Though authorities wanted to bury him and the story quickly, Mamie demanded his body be returned to Chicago for an open-casket funeral. Tens of thousands attended, and Jet magazine took photographs of Till’s gruesomely mangled face.
The men responsible were acquitted, but justice was not yet finished. The grotesque images in Jet Magazine inspired many to take up activism and organizing for Black liberation and justice, as did Mamie’s vigorous campaigning around the country on behalf of her son.
Soon after, the Montgomery Bus Boycott started, and the Civil Rights Movement had truly begun.
Mamie Till’s difficult choice in the face of the worst possible tragedy sparked a movement that she continued to be a part of for decades – she would not let her son die in vain. Her example reminds us that our choices amid crisis can inspire others to act and overcome.