Bullet Riddled Emmett Till Sign – Smithsonian National Museum
National Museum of American History Exhibit: “Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice and the Murder of Emmett Till” (September 3, 2021 – October 5, 2021)
The brutal abduction, torture, and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955 exposed the horrors of racism, ignited protests around the world, and galvanized the civil rights movement. His mother, Mamie Till-Bradley, changed the world by insisting upon an open casket funeral to ensure that all would see the brutality visited upon her son. The site where Till’s body was recovered from the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi was marked with a roadside plaque to memorialize the price that a 14-year-old paid for being Black. The marker, first erected in 2008 by the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, has been replaced three times as the result of repeated acts of vandalism and continues to attract demonstrations by white nationalists.
On September 3, 2021, the National Museum of American History launched a month-long Emmett Till exhibit designed to create public reflection on the enduring legacies of anti-Black violence. The exhibit is interpreted by family narratives and reflections by Mississippi locals and features one of the defaced historical riverside markers, pierced by 317 bullet holes. Sixty-six years after Till’s murder, the exhibit demonstrates the ways histories of racism and violence continue into the present. “The history of racial violence is often erased and highly contested in the battle to define American memory, and this vandalized sign demonstrates the ramifications of ongoing efforts of remembrance and social justice. Racism does not only reside in the past; it inhabits our lived reality,” said Anthea M. Hartig, a museum representative.
Museum admission is free and passes are not required. Companion video recordings featuring Emmett Till’s cousin, scholars, and Mississippi community leaders, are available on YouTube at the following link: Reckoning with Remembrance: History, Injustice and the Murder of Emmett Till. For more information about the exhibit and Emmett Till’s legacy, please visit: americanhistory.si.edu - Reckoning with Remembrance.
