The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis, in collaboration with The Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley Institute, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center and the Till family, is creating a national touring exhibit to share the story of Emmett Till, a Black 14-year-old from Chicago who was brutally murdered while visiting his uncle’s home in Mississippi in 1955.
The exhibit will debut in Indianapolis at The Children’s Museum on Sept. 17 before traveling across the country to museums including the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute in Alabama, the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C., Two Mississippi Museums in Jackson, DuSable Museum of African American History in Illinois and the Atlanta History Center in Georgia.
“We are honored to work with this incredible team, including Emmett’s family to elevate this important story and bring attention to widespread racism that continues today,” said Jennifer Pace Robinson, president and CEO of The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis. “Using important stories of real people from the past, we want to provide a safe space for families to have critical conversations so they can better understand the key conditions that create change today and give them a starting point in determining positive ways in which they can personally make a difference through collaborative learning and discussing problem solving together.”
“The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute is pleased to join with the Children’s Museum’s traveling exhibit that tells the true story of Emmett Till,” said Dr. Marvel Parker, executive director of the Till Institute. “The goal of our organization is to promote the legacy of Emmett Till and to continue the social activism of Mamie Till-Mobley in her pursuit of social justice and education that provides cultural socialization.”
A key artifact included in the exhibit is a roadside plaque commemorating the site where Emmett’s Till’s body may have been recovered from the Tallahatchie River. The sign featured in the exhibit made headlines after a group of students from the University of Mississippi posed in front of it with rifles and then posted their photo on Instagram in March 2019. The signs at this particular spot have been repeatedly vandalized and have been replaced three times. The fourth sign installed to honor Emmett’s life is a bulletproof sign equipped with security cameras and alarms.
“Despite the repeated vandalism of these signs, our community has united again and again to replace them to tell the truth about what happened to Emmett Till,” said Patrick Weems, executive director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner. “We believe that telling the truth about these acts of violence and injustice is the first step towards racial healing. These vandalized signs show just how much further we have to go to combat racism in our country.”
This project was made possible in part by The National Endowment for the Humanities: Democracy demands wisdom, the Maddox Foundation, The Institute for Museum and Library Services, The Historic Preservation Fund and the National Park Service.
