Mamie Till-Mobley

Portrait of Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley, ca. 1954.

NAACP Records, Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress

Quick Facts

Significance:

Mamie Till-Mobley was the mother of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago who was kidnapped and lynched in Mississippi in 1955. Her brave decision to allow a public viewing and Jet, an African American magazine, to feature photographs of her son’s brutalized body, turned private grief into national tragedy, and galvanized the Modern Civil Rights Movement. She subsequently became an important civil rights activist and teacher.

Place of Birth:

Webb (Tallahatchie County), Mississippi

Date of Birth:

November 23, 1921

Place of Death:

Chicago, Illinois

Date of Death:

January 6, 2003

Place of Burial:

Alsip, Illinois

Cemetery Name:

Burr Oak Cemetery

“The murder of my son has shown me that what happens to any of us, anywhere in the world, had better be the business of us all.”  

 —Mamie Till-Mobley, mother of Emmett Till, at a NAACP rally in Cleveland, Ohio, September 18, 1955

Life Before Tragedy

Mamie Till-Mobley (often referred to as Mamie Bradley around 1955) was born in Webb, Mississippi, on November 23, 1921, to John and Alma Carthan. At the age of two, her family relocated to Argo-Summit, Illinois as part of the Great Migration. This exodus of African Americans out of the South was ignited by long-standing racist violence and widespread economic, social, and political disparities between Black and White people. 

Mrs. Till-Mobley did well in school and graduated from Argo High School at the top of her class. In 1940, she married Louis Till; both were eighteen. Till was originally from New Madrid, Missouri, and, like Mamie’s father, worked for the Argo Corn Products Company. They had one child, Emmett Louis Till (nicknamed “Bobo”), born on July 25, 1941. The couple separated when Emmett was a toddler. Mother and son remained in Argo-Summit, from where she commuted to Chicago, working in various positions for the federal government. Her estranged husband joined the military and died in 1945 while serving overseas during World War II.  

In the early 1950s, Mrs. Till-Mobley and Emmett resided for a short time in Detroit, Michigan where her father lived. After returning to Illinois, they lived on Chicago’s South Side in a home her mother purchased on St. Lawrence Avenue (designated a Chicago Landmark in 2021). She and Emmett occupied the three-bedroom apartment on the second floor, with other relatives living on the first floor.  

Like many African Americans who left the South during the Great Migration, Mrs. Till-Mobley maintained a strong bond with family and friends who remained in Mississippi. In the summer of 1955, her aunt and uncle Moses “Mose” and Elizabeth Wright invited Emmett to visit them near the town of Money, LeFlore County, Mississippi. Mrs. Till-Mobley initially refused to let Emmett go. She eventually relented, but not without giving him strict instruction. She recalled, “I began lecturing and schooling Bo seriously on how to conduct himself in the South. I emphasized over and over again to him that it was not the same as Argo or Chicago and he had to be extra careful to avoid getting in trouble with white people.”  

On August 20, Emmett boarded a southbound train to Mississippi with Uncle Mose and Wright’s grandson, Wheeler Parker Jr. It would be the last time that Mrs. Till-Mobley saw her son alive.  

From Grieving Mother to Activist and Educator 

On August 28, Mrs. Till-Mobley was notified that her son was missing. Hoping he was still alive, she enlisted the aid of the NAACP and the Chicago Tribune in her efforts to find her son. However, a few days later, she was informed that Emmett’s mutilated body had been recovered from the Tallahatchie River near Graball Landing. Emmett’s life had come to a tragic end after reportedly whistling at Carolyn Bryant, a White woman, during a visit to a store in town to purchase some candy. He was kidnapped and lynched by at least two White men: Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, the husband of Carolyn Bryant and his half-brother.   

 After Mrs. Till-Mobley was alerted of secret plans to quickly bury Emmett, she intervened and refused to allow her son to be buried Mississippi. She demanded that his body be transferred back to Chicago for funeral and burial there. Knowing the powerful effect it would have, she insisted on an open-casket funeral. Thousands of mourners visited Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ for the viewing and funeral in September. She also allowed photos of Emmett’s brutalized body to be published in Jet, an African American weekly magazine. Confronted with the images of the fourteen-year-old boy’s mutilated body, the nation could no longer ignore the deadly impacts of hatred and racism.   

Shortly after Emmett’s funeral, and in the face of death threats, Mrs. Till-Mobley traveled to Mississippi for the trial of her son’s murderers. During the trial, which took place at the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, she took the stand and testified that the body retrieved from the river was indeed that of her young son. Despite her testimony, that of her Uncle Mose, and overwhelming evidence, which included admission of the kidnapping by the accused themselves, justice was not served. Bryant and Milam were acquitted on all charges by an all male, all White jury.  

However, the verdict did not sway Mrs. Till-Mobley, and she continued to seek justice on behalf of her son. Over the following decades, she maintained a rigorous schedule of appearances and speaking engagements. In 2000, she traveled to Mississippi with Reverend Jesse Jackson, Jr. to attend a rally and march calling for an investigation into the death of seventeen-year-old Raynard Johnson. The teenager was found dead hanging from a tree in his front yard in Kokomo, Mississippi. The circumstances resembled a lynching. Johnson’s death was ruled a suicide by Mississippi authorities, even though there was evidence that foul play had occurred.    

Mrs. Till-Mobley also returned to school and earned a college degree in education in 1960. For over 20 years, she worked as an elementary teacher in Chicago inspiring future generations.  

Death

Mrs. Till-Mobley passed away as a result of heart failure at Jackson Park Hospital in 2003 as she was preparing to travel to Atlanta for a speaking engagement at Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park. She was buried at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois, in the same cemetery as her beloved son. A plaque in the cemetery reads, “Her Pain United a Nation.”   

Sources

City of Chicago, Department of Housing and Development, Bureau of Planning and Zoning, Historic Preservation Division. “Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley House Landmark Designation Report.” November 5, 2020.

“Mamie Bradley’s Untold Story.” Chicago Defender, February 27, 28, 29 and March 1, 5, 6.

“Rites Held For Slain Boy; Blast Wrong Identity Claim.” Chicago Sun-Times, September 4, 1955. 

Till Mobley, Mamie and Christopher Bensen. The Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America. One World/Ballantine Books, 2003.