The Senate passed a bill to posthumously honor Emmett Till with the Congressional Gold Medal. The mother of the Chicago teenager who was killed in the 1950s by white supremacists in Mississippi will also be honored.

Mamie Till-Mobley, the teen's mom, demanded an open casket for her son so the world could see the barbarity of his killing, HuffPost reports. 

Sens. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.) proposed the bill to honor Till and his late mother with the Congressional Gold Medal, which is the highest civilian honor Congress can grant.

The senators said the legislation was a long-overdue acknowledgment of the pain the Till family endured.

Rep. Bobby Rush (D-Ill.) supported the legislation in the House. Rush also endorsed a bill to issue a memorial postage stamp for Till-Mobley. While acknowledging the importance of honoring the mother and son, critics have expressed frustration with the Senate not passing an anti-lynching bill, according to MSNBC.

According to HuffPost, two men abducted, tortured and killed the teenager, accusing him of whistling at a white woman.

Till's killing electrified the civil rights movement when Till-Mobley allowed an open casket to show her son's brutalized body, which was later published by Jet magazine.