Every year, on August 28th, the United States will remember Emmett Till. This grand narrative turns 70 years old at the end of the 2025 riot season.
The day after a body was found in the Tallahatchie River, Minnesotan Roy Wilkins sent the press release that started the Civil Rights Movement. Thus began the long history of Minnesotan’s invoking the image and narrative of Emmett Till to capture the public’s imagination and excite networks around the country.
Till’s mutilated corpse, like film from the Holocaust, continues to serve as a visceral reminder of the most important lessons of the 20th Century.
Other Connections to Minnesota
A Google Search for comparisons to Emmett Till, for George Floyd (GF), Philando Castille (PC), and Daunte Wright all produced nearly a million results (964,500) in less than 2 seconds. (00:148 seconds)
A relative of Emmett Till presented at a press conference with Philando Castile and Daunte Wright’s mother, where George Floyd was referenced over a dozen times.
Minnesota Songwriter Bob Dylan wrote a song called The_Death_of_Emmett_Till teaching the white counter culture how to exploit this tragedy for their politics.
I wasn’t the first to connect Amir Locke’s death to Black History nor was I the first to connect him to Emmett Till.
Her Story News By Women For Women in their article, “America Still Has a Lynching Problem” compares Interim Police Chief Amelian Hoffman to Carolyn Bryant Donham, because of a press release that suggested Locke was a suspect in the Warrant.
In fact, Locke, who had been startled awake while sleeping on the couch at the address on the warrant, was only suspected of pointing a gun at police officers during a pre-sunrise, no-knock raid. The Minnesota Spokesman Recorder Cole Miska’s excellent article, Black mothers, women press for accountability in police killing of Amir Locke:
“Speakers invited Black women observing the press conference to join the group behind the microphone, with speaker Deborah Watts, co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, asking all women behind the microphone to lock arms in solidarity.”
The future of Emmett Till being used in Minnesota’s Black History may be in question as another local media outlet reports on Dec. 6th 2021, “Emmett Till’s family disappointed after DOJ closes investigation, no new charges filed” against Carolyn Bryant Donham. As of this writing, the Minnesota Legislature is debating a bill about how to best memorialize Black victims.
In the meantime, it’s safe to say that Minnesota Activists will be able to compare Black victims to Emmett Till for years to come.
Perhaps one day, all white women making false accusations will be held accountable.
