The National Park Foundation in Washington, DC, has announced the creation of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument with $5.9 million in philanthropic funding.

A grant of $2 million from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Monuments Project facilitated the acquisition of the Tallahatchie County Courthouse in Mississippi, where an all-white jury acquitted J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant of Till’s murder in 1955, to establish one of the National Park Service’s three sites for the monument. Funding for the Emmett Till Interpretive Center (ETIC) will also support the purchase and renovation of a nearby building as the location of the new Tallahatchie Courthouse.

In addition, a $1 million grant from the Fund II Foundation will fund a National Park Service Park Ranger position focused on community engagement, enhanced digital storytelling around the Till family within the visitor center, a cultural landscape report, and a contemplative area that will allow visitors to reflect on Till’s story at the second monument site at Graball Landing, where his body was recovered. The third site includes Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago, where Mamie Till-Mobley held her son’s open-casket funeral. An additional $2.9 million grant from the Monuments Project will support the church’s restoration and improved public accessibility.

“Due to the shared vision and coordination of the Till family, community activists, historians, educators, culture workers, and other partner organizations, the torture and murder of Emmett Till and the bravery of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, will be forever marked as sites of learning in the country’s commemorative landscape,” said Mellon Foundation president Elizabeth Alexander. “The Mellon Foundation is honored to be a part of this vital collaborative effort to make indelibly present Emmett Till’s central and sacred place in our collective American history. May his tragic death and his mother’s courage continue to empower us to stand bravely against forces of violence and hatred.”

(Photo credit: National Park Foundation)