10 Years After A 50th Year Commemorative Trip:
Remembering Emmett Till 60 Years After The Fact
By Miguel Blancarte, Jr.
Miguelblancarte.mab@gmail.com
Summer of 2005 is a time that I will not forget. As a newly-minted 18 year old, I had just
graduated from Cristo Rey Jesuit High School in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood; I was
preparing to leave for Brown University to study; and I held two internships – one at an
immigration law firm in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood, and the second at Illinois
State Representative Cynthia Soto’s office as part my Mikva Challenge Summer
Government and Leadership Internship and Institute (now known as Mikva’s Summer
Fellows Program). More important, however, throughout the summer of 2005, at the
Garfield Park Conservatory, I, along with 34 other rising college freshman, took on an
important topic as part of the Institute.
At the beginning of the Institute, our facilitator Mia Henry, asked, “who here knows who
Emmett Till was?” I remember looking around and seeing only a few hands go up; and
those who did shared that they heard of Emmett Till through family or friends. My hand
certainly did not because up until then, my education had not afforded me the opportunity
of learning about a story in history which should not be forgotten, and one that ought to
be taught at schools. Throughout Mikva’s Institute, we gathered and learned about Till,
the facts surrounding the case, the catalyst that Till’s murder was in sparking the led civil
rights movement efforts, and the importance about this time in America’s history.
To culminate the internship and Institute, 20 of the interns were able to partake in a 50th
Year Emmett Till Commemorative Trip to Mississippi and Alabama. We boarded flights
on Friday, August 26, 2005 and safely returned to Chicago on Monday, August 29, 2005.
(Safely because that weekend was when Hurricane Katrina struck throughout Southern
States, including Cleveland, Mississippi where we were staying.Louisiana and
Mississippi).
The trip put everything we had learned into perspective. It allowed us to visualize
important history by transporting us to the various sites surrounding his murder and case.
We visited Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market in Money, MS, where Till allegedly
whistled at Carolyn Bryant. We stopped by Glendora, MS, where on August 28, 1955,
Till was brutally murdered. We sat inside the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Sumner,
MS, where the case against the murders of Till, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, was heard,
and where they were acquitted. We travelled to the gravesite of civil rights leader and
activist Fannie Lou Hamer in Ruleville, MS via the Emmett Till Memorial Highway.
I was touched. Not only because I learned about the injustices but because I was able to
hear from individuals who remembered Till and the case. This included some who were
there when Till’s mother, Mammie Till Mobley, exhibited one of the bravest things a
mother could do, hold an open-casket funeral. In doing so, Till Mobley hoped to bring
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attention to the atrocities of segregation, to the harm of race inequalities, and to
wrongdoings of the law.
To address the aforementioned, we were also able to meet with various organizations and
community leaders, whom shared with us the injustices, racism, and segregation that still
(then, in 2005) existed despite civil rights progress.
10 years later, and I am now 28 years old. 10 years of new knowledge, and 10 years of
massive expansion and growth in/for our nation and in/for the world. I, we, now live in a
world where technology has advanced communication, and it is said that communication
is supposed to aid in resolving disagreements and that it is supposed to bridge divides
between people. I’m not so sure.
While it is certain that technology advances communication, see the recent
#BlackLivesMatter movement as a great example, I’m not sure technology is aiding
communications and bridging divides? Is the #BlackLivesMatter movement using history
to advance or to provide foundation toward their efforts? And if so, how can the
movement continue to inform others about Emmett Till and Mammie Till Mobley? This
weekend marks the 10th year anniversary of the trip we, Mikva Challenge interns,
embarked to Mississippi and Alabama; it marks the 60th year anniversary and
commemoration of Emmett Till. Can we say that the story of Emmett Till and reaction to
his violent murder is a precursor to #BlackLivesMatter? Making the connection is
important: the unjust death of Till led to an unjust trial verdict, Mammie Till Mobley’s
act of selflessness and courage led to the beginning of the civil rights movement. 60 years
later, the efforts continue.
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Miguel Blancarte, Jr., is a native and resident of Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood.
He is a Board Member of the Mikva Challenge Emerging Leaders Board and a member
of the Mikva Challenge Alumni Association. He is also a runner, a triathlete, and an
athlete.
Follow Miguel at https://twitter.com/mblancartejr
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