31 Facts About Mamie Till

Devastated, Mamie Till threw herself into her schoolwork and excelled in her studies.

Mamie Till 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 age 18, Mamie met a young man from New Madrid, Missouri named Louis Till.

However, the persistent Mamie Till won out, and they got married on October 14,1940.

However, they separated in 1942 after Mamie Till found out that Louis had been unfaithful.

Mamie Till later choked her close to unconsciousness, to which Mamie responded by throwing scalding water at Louis.

In 1945, Mamie Till received notice from the War Department that, while serving in Italy, Louis was executed due to "willful misconduct".

Mamie Till had been charged with raping and murdering an Italian woman.

Mamie Till worked for the Air Force as a clerk and was in charge of confidential files.

Mamie Till worked more than 12-hour days and Emmett took care of the home while she worked.

Mamie Till never saw Emmett alive again, as he was abducted and brutally murdered on August 28,1955, after being accused of interacting inappropriately with a white woman.

The precise facts of what happened at the store are disputed; however, Mamie Till was accused of touching, flirting with, or whistling at Carolyn.

Mamie Till was abducted while he was sharing a bed with a cousin and there were a total of eight people in the cabin.

Mamie Till was tossed over the Black Bayou Bridge in Glendora, near the Tallahatchie River.

The only identifying feature that was a factor in identifying Mamie Till was a family ring he was wearing.

Mamie Till opted to have an open-casket funeral for five days at the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ.

Mamie Till enjoyed a close relationship with many African-American media outlets, and the NAACP hired Till-Mobley to go on a speaking tour around the country and share her son's story.

Mamie Till continued speaking out, and to influence the jury during the trial of her son's murderers, Till-Mobley flew to Mississippi and provided testimony.

However, since his death became symbolic of the lynchings of the mid-1950s, Mamie Till-Mobley remains most well-known in that context.

Mamie Till-Mobley established a theater group called "The Emmett Mamie Till Players".

Mamie Till-Mobley taught on the South Side of Chicago, while continuing her work as an activist and her efforts to honor the life of her son.

In 1971, Mamie Till-Mobley earned a master's degree in educational administration from Loyola University Chicago.

In 1992, Mamie Till-Mobley had the opportunity to listen while Roy Bryant was interviewed about his involvement in her son's murder.

On June 24,1957, Mamie Till-Bradley married Gene Mobley and later changed her surname to Till-Mobley.

On January 6,2003, Mamie Till-Mobley died of heart failure at age 81.

Mamie 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 her son's death.

Mamie Till-Mobley died a few months before the book was published.

In 1973, Mamie Till-Mobley created the Emmett Mamie Till Players, a student group that traveled to deliver works about "hope, determination, and unity" by reciting speeches of Dr King and other civil rights leaders.

Mamie Till founded and chaired the Emmett Till Justice Campaign.

In 2015, Whoopi Goldberg announced plans for a film called Mamie Till, based on the life of Mamie Till-Mobley.

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