The barn where Emmett Till was murdered 70 years ago is set to be reopened as a memorial for the slain teenager. An organization dedicated to preserving Till’s memory and legacy, with support from Hollywood titan Shonda Rhimes, has acquired the site and intends to make sure its historical significance is remembered.
Organization, community seek to maintain Till’s legacy
The Emmett Till Interpretive Center recently purchased the barn in Drew, Mississippi, where Emmett Till was murdered by two white men after being accused of making a pass at a white woman in a nearby store. The ETIC has said that it plans to preserve and restore the location as a “sacred space for truth, healing, and national reflection.” The organization plans to spend the next several years reinforcing the structure of the building and developing the site as a memorial, with community engagement and consultation.
In a post on its website, the ETIC detailed the work that the organization and members of the community have done to preserve the site relevant to Till’s murder. “We have restored the courthouse where justice failed, commemorated the riverbank where Emmett’s body was found, and replaced the signs that hatred tried to destroy,” the ETIC statement said. “Every project has carried the same conviction: a nation does not grow stronger by forgetting; it grows stronger by telling the truth.” The ETIC plans to have the memorial site opened by 2030 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Till’s death. By 2030, “the barn will open as a part of a larger public memorial — a place of truth, creativity, and conscience. Visitors will come not to look at tragedy, but to confront their own role in the ongoing work of democracy.”
Shonda Rhimes seeks to honor Emmett Till, inspired by his mother
The ETIC purchased the barn from a white dentist who had bought the site in the 1990s. The property was purchased using a $1.5 million donation from producer Shonda Rhimes, who decided to support the ETIC after reading about the organization in a 2021 article about Till by Wright Thompson in The Atlantic. Rhimes stated her intention to make the donation during a 2023 appearance on Good Morning America. In a statement from Rhimes released by the EITC, she said. “Seventy years ago, Mamie Till said, ‘Let them see.’ And today, with the preservation of the barn by the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, the world will see.” The famed producer added, “The barn where Emmett Till, a child, was tortured and killed will now be saved and protected by the Emmett Till Interpretive Center.”
As referenced by Rhimes, Till’s murder 70 years ago shocked Black and white Americans and helped galvanize the Black Freedom Movement. The teenager from Chicago, who was visiting relatives in Mississippi when he was kidnapped, was taken to the barn where he was brutally tortured and eventually killed. Till’s two murderers were acquitted by an all-white jury, while numerous possible accomplices were never punished for their roles in the crime. Images of Till’s mutilated body published at the insistence of his mother outraged the country and helped spark the Civil Rights Movement.
The people who killed Till were never brought to justice, and even memorials to the murdered teenager have been vandalized in recent years. In this context, the effort to preserve the story of Till’s killing and maintain his legacy has been a continuing fight. With the work of the ETIC and Rhimes to buy the barn where Till’s life was taken away, an important step has been taken to make sure his story and impact continue to be remembered.