New Seattle museum exhibit highlights the Civil Rights 'ripple effect' of Emmett Till’s 1955 murder

A new exhibit telling the story of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy whose 1955 lynching helped propel the Civil Rights Movement, opened at Seattle’s Northwest African American Museum on Thursday.

Museum leaders say the exhibit also calls attention to present-day racism and violence in America.

“Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See” explores Till’s life and death, and how his mother’s decision to hold an open-casket funeral displaying her son’s mutilated body generated worldwide attention and outrage over racial violence faced by Black Americans in the Jim Crow South.

“It's quite possible that if Mamie Till-Mobley makes a different decision in regard to whether or not to display the violence inflicted upon her son, that many advancements on civil rights don't occur as a ripple effect,” said Brandon Bird, the museum’s interim director.

Till, who had traveled to Drew, Mississippi, from Chicago to visit family in August 1955, was kidnapped, tortured, and shot to death by two white men, Roy Bryant and J. W. Milam, who dumped his body in the Tallahatchie River. Roy Bryant’s wife, Carolyn Bryant, had accused Till of whistling at her – an allegation she recanted in 2007. Roy Bryant and Milam were acquitted by an all-white and all-male jury. They confessed to murdering Till in an interview published the following year in Look Magazine.

Turner said the exhibit being in Seattle is timely, pointing to the city’s own challenges with confronting systemic racism.

"There's kind of a view [in Seattle] of, 'I am liberal, and I would never exemplify…any kind of racist behavior.’ But then I think — unconsciously — it always kind of comes to the surface."

Till's story also bears relevance in the wake of an 11-year-old Black boy's alleged assault by a 42-year-old white man in Bellingham on Wednesday. The man is accused of punching the sixth-grader in the face after saying, “Are you gonna talk to a white man like that?" the Bellingham Herald reported. The man faces charges of second-degree assault and malicious harassment, which is a hate crime in Washington.

"And how that relates to Emmett Till — his murder was also a senseless act of brutality that was visited upon him was not only unjust, but really just senseless," Bird said. "That's what kind of connects with me right now."

Another aspect of Till’s story highlighted in the exhibit is the 14-year-old’s unfamiliarity with the racially violent ways of the Jim Crow South.

“Is it fair that he has to go through that? No,” said Jason Turner, an education coordinator with the Northwest African American Museum. “But it was necessary for him to understand that that is the way that folks operate down there at that time. You had to be very careful because [it] was a very dangerous place if you stepped out of line with the white expectations.”

It wasn’t until 2007 that the county of Tallahatchie, Mississippi, acknowledged the miscarriage of justice surrounding Till’s death by issuing a formal apology. The county also erected a signpost near the area where Till’s body was recovered. That signpost has been replaced several times due to vandalism; one bullet-riddled signpost has made it to Seattle as part of the exhibit.

Last year, President Joe Biden designated a national monument to Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley on what would have been Till's 82nd birthday.

Bird said it’s important to understand Till’s story because it helped lay the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement. Till-Mobley’s courage in speaking up, he said, informed the activism of Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. — and more recent racial justice efforts.

"We hope to be able to reinforce to our community that we all have the capability of taking such courageous acts and also potentially having that sort of influence on our local community, and beyond," Bird said.

The arrival of “Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See” coincides with the start of local Juneteenth celebrations, which commemorate the day in 1865 when enslaved people in Galveston, Texas, received news of their freedom under the Emancipation Proclamation. The juxtaposition of oppression and joy are a central theme in Juneteenth celebrations, Turner said.

“It's great for remembrance of the things that we've gone through — with Emmett being the center of that — and a reminder of what we need to continue to fight for,” he said.

"Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley: Let the World See" will be displayed at the Northwest African American Museum through the end of the year. The museum is open Thursday-Sunday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (with hours extended to 7 p.m. on second Thursdays). Entry costs $10 for adults and $5 for youth 18 and under; children 3 and under get in free.

Curators of the exhibit recommend that children be at least 10 years old to view it.