SUMNER — The Emmett Till Interpretive Center here has been awarded $691,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The grant, entitled “Preserving the Legacy of Emmett Till Through Expansion of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center,” will provide operational support for the center’s truth telling and racial healing efforts that include historic preservation, community building activities in the Mississippi Delta, as well as a year-long strategic planning process to further the center’s mission and care for the Mamie and Emmett Till story.
“We are honored to have received this important gift from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and are honored to play a central role in caring for the legacy of Mamie and Emmett Till,” said Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center. “This grant will allow us to create a generational shift in our community by helping us remember the past.”
Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., cousin of Emmett Till and last living witness to his kidnapping, stated, “I applaud the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and Patrick Weems for their outstanding achievements and their commitment to preserving the legacy of my cousin, Emmett Till. My heart is overjoyed with the launch of each new initiative. Congratulations on the grant award from the Mellon Foundation. Your dedication and pursuit of social justice and racial reconciliation resonate with my commitment to the truth, forgiveness and reconciliation.”
About the center: The Emmett Till Interpretive Center was formed to confront the brutal truth of the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in the Mississippi Delta and to seek justice for the Till family and Delta community. The center aims to tell the story of Emmett Till and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, as an act of restorative justice to create the conditions necessary to begin the process of racial healing in Mississippi and across the nation. The center works to foster a community and society that embraces truth telling as the crucial first step toward racial healing.
