Emmett Till statue unveiled in Mississippi park

A nine-foot statue of Emmett Till, the Black teen kidnapped and killed for whistling at a white woman in 1955, was set to be unveiled Friday in a Mississippi park located just a short drive from an elaborate monument to the Confederacy.

The massive bronze rendering, a jovial depiction of Till in slacks, a dress shirt and a tie with one hand on the brim of his hat, is at the heart of Rail Spike Park in Greenwood. The area will be called Emmett Till Square at Rail Spike Park. It will be just a few miles away from the Leflore County Courthouse, which is also the site of a monument featuring a group of Confederate soldiers.

An event worker removes the tarp of the Emmett Till statue during its unveiling, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 in Greenwood, Miss. (Rogelio V. Solis/)

Till’s statue is near Grocery & Meat Market in the hamlet of Money, where the teen first crossed paths with Carolyn Bryant Donham. She later told her husband and owner of the country store, Roy Bryant, that Till harassed her, triggering a deadly reaction that would go on to spark the Civil Rights movement.

Enraged by 14-year-old Till’s violation of an unwritten behavior code in the Jim Crow-era south, Roy, and his half-brother J.W. Milam, abducted the teen the night of Aug. 28, 1955. They beat and mutilated him before shooting him in the head and sinking his body in the Tallahatchie River. His bloated body was found and pulled from the water days later.

An undated portrait shows Emmett Till, a black 14-year-old Chicago boy, who was brutally murdered near Money, Mississippi, Aug. 31, 1955, after whistling at a white woman. (ASSOCIATED PRESS/)

At the time of his violent death, Till, a native of Chicago, had been visiting family in the Mississippi Delta. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, hosted an open casket funeral in his home city so that others could see the horrors her son had faced.

Neither of his killers were ever punished. Both men were acquitted by an all-white jury, though they later confessed to the brutal crime.

Greenwood and Leflore County are both more than 70% Black and officials have worked for years to bring the Till statue to the area. Democratic state Sen. David Jordan of Greenwood secured $150,000 in state funding, allowing officials to commission Utah-based artist Matt Glenn to create the rendering.

Audience members reach forward to touch and photograph the Emmett Till Memorial Statue following its unveiling, Friday, Oct. 21, 2022, in Greenwood, Miss. (Rogelio V. Solis/)

The unveiling on Friday comes a week after the release of “Till,” a movie focusing on Till-Mobley’s private trauma over her son’s death and how it moved her to become an advocate for civil rights.

A life-sized bronze statue of Till-Mobley is slated to go up in the Chicago suburb of Summit. The groundbreaking is scheduled for Oct. 28 at a plaza outside Argo Community High School, where she was an honor student. The statue is scheduled to be in place by late April.

With News Wire Services