The home where Emmett Till lived in Chicago, Illinois will receive landmark funding.
Reports say that the house is set to receive a share of $3 million in grants from the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.
Till’s house was constructed in 1895 where his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, lived until 1962. The 2,400-square-foot house is located in the Woodlawn area of Chicago and it was purchased by the local nonprofit group, Blacks in Green in 2020 and was named a landmark in 2021.
Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 while visiting his family in Mississippi. He was accused of whistling at 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant, a white woman. This accusation caused Bryant’s then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam to abduct, torture, and murder Till. His body was later found in the Tallahatchie River.
Both Bryant and Milam were acquitted of the murder and then later confessed to killing Till in a paid interview under the protection of double jeopardy. In 2018, Till’s murder was reopened after it was alleged that Bryant recanted her story about Till grabbing her and yelling obscenities at her.
It was recently reported that an unserved warrant charging Carolyn Bryant for the 1955 kidnapping of Till was found in the basement of Mississippi. His family is calling for the arrest of Bryant but General Lynn Fitch states that “There’s no new evidence to open the case back up.”
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