BLUEBENGAL
Senior Member
http://www.clarionledger.com/news/0301/07/m07.html
January 7, 2003
Mother of '55 lynching victim Emmett Till dies at 81
The Associated Press
The mother of Emmett Till, whose 1955 race-motivated killing in Mississippi became a catalyst for the civil rights movement, has died.
Mamie Till Mobley, 81, died Monday of heart failure at Chicago's Jackson Park Hospital, family members said.
At a National Reparations Convention Committee hearing in Jackson in May, Mobley said, "I have never stopped crying for Emmett. As I have become ill, I need a grandson, granddaughter or someone to lean on."
In an Associated Press story last month, Mobley said she remained haunted by the killing of her 14-year-old son. An all-white jury acquitted half brothers J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant in the black teenager's death, though Look magazine published an article with their alleged confession four months later.
"This has just grated on my mind because the trial was so unfair," Mobley said.
Till was vacationing in Money on Aug. 24, 1955, when he allegedly whistled at a white woman.
Four days later, Till was abducted from his uncle's home. His battered body was found with a bullet hole in the head three days later, in the Tallahatchie River.
Civil rights leaders credit Till and Mobley with helping spark the movement that ended Jim Crow segregation laws and passed the Civil Rights Act, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday.
"She was a very articulate teacher who saw the pain of her son and did a profound, strategic thing," Jackson said. "When they pulled his water-soaked body from the river, most people would have kept the casket closed. She kept it open."
Jackson said more than 100,000 people viewed the body in Chicago and were transformed. Months later, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., started a cycle of nonviolent protests.
"The lynching and martyrdom of Emmett Till was a pivotal moment in American history," Jackson said.
Mobley was suffering from kidney failure. Her niece Cerretta Washington said Mobley became lethargic while a family member was driving her to a dialysis treatment. She died at 2:30 p.m.
January 7, 2003
Mother of '55 lynching victim Emmett Till dies at 81
The Associated Press
The mother of Emmett Till, whose 1955 race-motivated killing in Mississippi became a catalyst for the civil rights movement, has died.
Mamie Till Mobley, 81, died Monday of heart failure at Chicago's Jackson Park Hospital, family members said.
At a National Reparations Convention Committee hearing in Jackson in May, Mobley said, "I have never stopped crying for Emmett. As I have become ill, I need a grandson, granddaughter or someone to lean on."
In an Associated Press story last month, Mobley said she remained haunted by the killing of her 14-year-old son. An all-white jury acquitted half brothers J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant in the black teenager's death, though Look magazine published an article with their alleged confession four months later.
"This has just grated on my mind because the trial was so unfair," Mobley said.
Till was vacationing in Money on Aug. 24, 1955, when he allegedly whistled at a white woman.
Four days later, Till was abducted from his uncle's home. His battered body was found with a bullet hole in the head three days later, in the Tallahatchie River.
Civil rights leaders credit Till and Mobley with helping spark the movement that ended Jim Crow segregation laws and passed the Civil Rights Act, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Monday.
"She was a very articulate teacher who saw the pain of her son and did a profound, strategic thing," Jackson said. "When they pulled his water-soaked body from the river, most people would have kept the casket closed. She kept it open."
Jackson said more than 100,000 people viewed the body in Chicago and were transformed. Months later, a bus boycott in Montgomery, Ala., started a cycle of nonviolent protests.
"The lynching and martyrdom of Emmett Till was a pivotal moment in American history," Jackson said.
Mobley was suffering from kidney failure. Her niece Cerretta Washington said Mobley became lethargic while a family member was driving her to a dialysis treatment. She died at 2:30 p.m.
