Mamie Till

Born Mamie Elizabeth Carthan on November 23, 1921, in Webb, Mississippi, Carthan's family left the Southern United States during the period when millions of African-Americans migrated to the Northern United States (primarily to industrial cities) in the Great Migration (African American).

In 1922, shortly after her birth, her father, Nash Carthan, moved to Argo, Illinois, near Chicago. There, he found work at the Argo Corn Products Refining Company. Alma Carthan joined her husband in January 1924, bringing two-year-old Mamie and brother, John, with her. They settled in a predominantly African-American neighborhood in Argo.[3]

When Mamie was 13, her parents divorced. Devastated, she threw herself into her school work and excelled in her studies. Alma had high hopes for her only child, and although Alma Carthan said that in her day "the girls had one ambition -- to get married", she encouraged Mamie in her studies. Mamie was the first African-American student to make the "A" Honor roll and only the fourth African-American student to graduate from the predominantly white Argo Community High School.

At the age of 18, she met a young man from New Madrid, Missouri named Louis Till. He worked at the Argo Corn Company, was an amateur boxer, and was popular with women. Her parents disapproved, thinking the charismatic Till was "too sophisticated" for their daughter. At her mother's insistence, she broke off their courtship. But the persistent Till won out, and they married on October 14, 1940. Both were 18 years old.[3]

Their only child, Emmett, was born 9 months later. They separated in 1942 after Mamie found out that he had been unfaithful. Louis later choked her close to unconsciousness, to which she responded by throwing scalding water at him. Eventually, she obtained a restraining order against him. After Louis violated this repeatedly, a judge forced him to choose between enlistment in the U.S. Army or jail time. Choosing the former, he joined the Army in 1943.[4]

In 1945, she received notice from the War Department that her husband had been killed in army service in Italy. Louis Till was convicted of rape (along with his accomplice Fred A. McMurray) of an Italian woman. They were both tried and convicted by a U.S. Army general court-martial and their sentence was death by hanging. Their sentence was appealed but denied. Reference: The Fifth Field-The Story Of The 96 American Soldiers Sentenced To Death And Executed In Europe And North Africa In World War II, Colonel French L. Maclean U.S. Army (Retired). Their names appear on Page 212 and both their bodies were buried near the First World War U.S. Cemetery located at Oise-Aisne. It is known as Plot E or the Fifth Field.

By the early 1950s, Mamie and Emmett had moved to Chicago's South Side. Mamie met and married "Pink" Bradley, but they divorced two years later.[3]

In 1955, when Emmett was fourteen, his mother put him on the train to spend the summer visiting his cousins in Money, Mississippi. She never saw him alive again. Her son was abducted and brutally murdered on August 28, 1955, after being accused of interacting inappropriately with a white woman. The following month, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam faced trial for Till's kidnapping and murder but were acquitted by the all-white jury after a five-day trial and a 67-minute deliberation. One juror said, "If we hadn't stopped to drink pop, it wouldn't have taken that long."[5] Only months later, in an interview with Look magazine in 1956, protected against double jeopardy, Bryant and Milam admitted to killing Emmett Till.[6]

For her son's funeral, Till insisted that the casket containing his body be left open, because, in her words, "I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby." Tens of thousands of people viewed Emmett's body, and photographs were circulated around the country.[2][7] Through the constant attention it received, the Till case became emblematic of the disparity of justice for blacks in the South. The NAACP asked Mamie Till to tour the country relating the events of her son's life, death, and the trial of his murderers. It was one of the most successful fundraising campaigns the NAACP had ever known.[8]

Till graduated from Chicago Teachers College in 1960 (now Chicago State University, 1971). She married Gene Mobley on June 24, 1957. She became a teacher, changed her surname to Till-Mobley, and continued her life as an activist working to educate people about what happened to her son.

In 1976, she obtained a master's degree in educational administration from Loyola University Chicago.[9]

In 1992, Till-Mobley had the opportunity to listen while Roy Bryant was interviewed about his involvement in her son's murder. With Bryant unaware that Till-Mobley was listening, he asserted that Emmett Till had ruined his life. He expressed no remorse and stated, "Emmett Till is dead. I don't know why he can't just stay dead."[10]

Mamie and Gene Mobley remained happily married until Gene's death from a stroke on March 18, 2000.[11]

On January 6, 2003, Till-Mobley died of heart failure at the age of 81. The same year, her autobiography (written with Christoper Benson), Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America, was published. Till-Mobley was buried near her son in Burr Oak Cemetery, where her monument reads, "Her pain united a nation".[12]

Till-Mobley's activism extended far beyond what she did in regards to her son's death. However, since her son's death became symbolic for many of the lynchings going on in the South during the mid-1950s, some history books only reference her in relation to him.[13] Following Emmett's death she continued working as an activist.

A large part of her work centered around education. She worked throughout her life to help children living in poverty. Her activism in this field lasted over 40 years.[14] She spent 23 years teaching in the Chicago public school system.[15]

She established a group called "The Emmett Till Players," which worked with school children outside of the classroom. The members learned and performed famous speeches by civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr.[15] She also spent a great deal of time contributing to knowledge production. She was frequently interviewed for documentary films and began working on a book which was published after she died.[14]

She was a very sought-after speaker. Till-Mobley began holding speaking engagements soon after Emmett died.[13] The NAACP hired her to go on a speaking tour around the country and share what happened to Emmett,[16] making it one of the most successful fundraising tours in NAACP history.[16] Despite the tour being a huge success, Mamie, and the NAACP quickly ended it due to a business dispute with executive secretary Roy Wilkins of the NAACP over payment for her being on tour.[15] Even without the support of the NAACP, Till-Mobley continued to be an influential speaker throughout her life.

She flew down to Mississippi and gave testimony at the trial of her son's murderers.[13] At the time the case was prominent news and she utilized that publicity to speak about the violence of lynching. After her son's death she enjoyed a close relationship with many African-American media outlets.[13]

Till-Mobley was able to use her role as a mother to relate to other people, and gain support for the cause of racial justice.[13]

Till-Mobley coauthored with Christopher Benson her memoir, Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America, published by Random House in 2003, almost 50 years after the death of her son. She died a few months before the publication of her book.[16]

Whoopi Goldberg announced in 2015 plans for a film called Till, based on Till-Mobley's book and her play, The Face of Emmett Till.[17] Danielle Deadwyler will play Till-Mobley, with newcomer Jalyn Hall as Emmett and Goldberg as Alma Carthan. The film will be theatrically released on October 7, 2022.

Till-Mobley is portrayed by Adrienne Warren in the six-part 2022 television drama Women of the Movement.

• Federal Bureau of Investigation (February 9, 2006). Prosecutive Report of Investigation Concerning (Emmett Till) (Flash Video or PDF). Retrieved October 2011.
• Hampton, Henry, Fayer, S. (1990). Voices of Freedom: An Oral History of the Civil Rights Movement from the 1950s through the 1980s. Bantam Books. ISBN 978-0-553-05734-8
• Houck, Davis; Grindy, Matthew (2008). Emmett Till and the Mississippi Press, University Press of Mississippi. ISBN 1-934110-15-9
• Till-Mobley, Mamie; Benson, Christopher (2003). The Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime That Changed America, Random House. ISBN 1-4000-6117-2
• Whitaker, Hugh Stephen (1963). A Case Study in Southern Justice: The Emmett Till Case, Florida State University (M.A. thesis). Retrieved October 2010.
• Whitfield, Stephen (1991). A Death in the Delta: The story of Emmett Till, JHU Press. ISBN 978-0-8018-4326-6

• Interview with Mamie Till Mobley for the WGBH series American Experience: The Murder of Emmett Till
• Mamie Till Mobley Enterprise, Inc.
• PBS Timeline
• Washington Post obituary
• "Mamie Till-Mobley" from the WGBH series, The Ten O'clock News
• Mamie Till a Guest on Democracy Now! (audio)