Page 2 - aruba-today-20230724

A2 u.s. news
Monday 24 July 2023

Biden will establish a national monument honoring Emmett Till

By DARLENE SUPERVILLE tion on Tuesday to create tral to the story of Till's life
Associated Press the Emmett Till and Mamie and death at age 14, the
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presi- Till-Mobley National Monu- acquittal of his white killers
dent Joe Biden will estab- ment across three sites in and his mother's activism.
lish a national monument Illinois and Mississippi, ac- Till's mother's insistence on
honoring Emmett Till, the cording to the official. The an open casket to show
Black teenager from Chi- individual spoke on condi- the world how her son had
cago who was abducted, tion of anonymity because been brutalized and Jet's
tortured and killed in 1955 the White House had not magazine's decision to
after he was accused of formally announced the publish photos of his muti-
whistling at a white woman president's plans. lated body helped galva-
in Mississippi, and his moth- Tuesday is the anniversary nize the Civil Rights Move-
er, a White House official of Emmett Till's birth in 1941. ment.
said Saturday. The monument will pro- Biden's decision also comes
Biden will sign a proclama- tect places that are cen- at a fraught time in the
President Joe Biden walks to his motorcade as he leaves Holy
Trinity Catholic Church in the Georgetown section of Washington,
after attending Mass, Saturday, July 22, 2023.
Associated Press

United States over matters people benefited.
concerning race. Conser- "All of that is rooted in what-
vative leaders are pushing ever is factual," he said in
back against the teaching response.
of slavery and Black history The monument to Till and
in public schools, as well his mother will include three
as the incorporation of di- sites in the two states.
versity, equity and inclu- The Illinois site is Roberts
sion programs from college Temple Church of God in
classrooms to corporate Christ in Bronzeville, a his-
boardrooms. torically Black neighbor-
On Friday, Vice President hood on Chicago's South
Kamala Harris criticized a Side. Thousands of people
revised Black history curric- gathered at the church to
ulum in Florida that includes mourn Emmett Till in Sep-
teaching that enslaved tember 1955.
people benefited from the The Mississippi locations are
skills they learned at the Graball Landing, believed
hands of the people who to be where Till's mutilated
denied them freedom. The body was pulled from the
Florida Board of Education Tallahatchie River, and the
approved the curriculum Tallahatchie County Sec-
to satisfy legislation signed ond District Courthouse in
by Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Sumner, Mississippi, where
Republican presidential Till's killers were tried and
candidate who has ac- acquitted by an all-white
cused public schools of lib- jury.
eral indoctrination. Till was visiting relatives in
"How is it that anyone Mississippi when Carolyn
could suggest that in the Bryant Donham said the
midst of these atrocities 14-year-old Till whistled and
that there was any benefit made sexual advances at
to being subjected to this her while she worked in a
level of dehumanization?" store in the small commu-
Harris asked in a speech nity of Money.
delivered from Jackson- Till was later abducted and
ville, Florida. his body eventually pulled
DeSantis said he had no from the Tallahatchie River,
role in devising his state's where he had been tossed
new education standards after he was shot and
but defended the com- weighted down with a cot-
ponents on how enslaved ton gin fan.q