Mamie Till was the mother of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old boy murdered in Mississippi on August 28,1955, after accusations that he had whistled at a white woman, a grocery store cashier named Carolyn Bryant.
18 Facts About Mamie Till
2.
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.
3.
Mamie Till's parents disapproved, thinking the charismatic Till was "too sophisticated" for their daughter.
4.
Mamie Till received notice from the War Department that, while serving in Italy, her husband was executed due to "willful misconduct".
5.
Mamie Till had been charged with raping an Italian woman.
6.
Mamie Till met and married "Pink" Bradley, but they divorced two years later.
7.
Mamie Till's son was abducted and brutally murdered on August 28,1955, after being accused of interacting inappropriately with a white woman.
8.
Milam faced trial for Mamie Till's kidnapping and murder but were acquitted by the all-white jury after a five-day trial and a 67-minute deliberation.
9.
Mamie Till enjoyed a close relationship with many African-American media outlets, and the NAACP hired her to go on a speaking tour around the country and share her son's story.
10.
Mamie Till-Mobley continued speaking out, and in an effort to influence the jury during the trial of her son's murderers she flew to Mississippi and provided testimony.
11.
Mamie Till-Mobley established "The Emmett Mamie Till Players," a theater group that worked with school children outside of the classroom, learning and performing famous speeches by civil rights leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr to inspire hope, unity, and determination to their audiences.
12.
Mamie Till graduated from Chicago Teachers College in 1960.
13.
Mamie Till became a teacher and continued her life as an activist working to educate people about what happened to her son.
14.
In 1992, Mamie Till-Mobley had the opportunity to listen while Roy Bryant was interviewed about his involvement in her son's murder.
15.
On January 6,2003, Mamie Till-Mobley died of heart failure at the age of 81.
16.
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 the death of her son.
17.
Mamie Till died a few months before the publication of her book.
18.
Mamie Till-Mobley is portrayed by Adrienne Warren in the six-part 2022 television drama Women of the Movement.