Family members in Oklahoma react after proclamation signed in honor of Emmett Till
By Jason Burger
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OKLAHOMA CITY (KOCO) — Family members in Oklahoma reacted after a proclamation was signed in honor of Emmett Till.
Emmett was a 14-year-old who was killed in the 1950s. His death in Mississippi helped spark the Civil Rights Movement.
“There are so many people who are saying this happened so long ago, and you need to let it go and forget about it. But to us, it’s still very real,” Joshua Harris-Till, Emmett’s cousin, said.
Justice is a concept Harris-Till knows very well and something his family has held onto since 1955. Emmett was Harris-Till’s first cousin twice removed.
“He’s supposed to still be here for all intents and purposes. It’d be his 82nd birthday. There are a lot of people alive today that have made it to 82,” Harris-Till said.
At just 14 years old, Emmett was kidnapped at gunpoint by two white men, tortured, and later killed, all because he was accused of whistling at a white woman. President Joe Biden signed a proclamation making three sites federally protected places, honoring Emmett and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
“We should be and could be on our way to righting those wrongs and making sure that other people don’t have to go through the harsh realities my family had to face,” Harris-Till said.
Two sites will be in Mississippi, and the other will be in Illinois. Harris-Till said he hopes they stand to educate people both at home and in the classroom.
“What we need to do is teach the truth to everybody and let them know we are a country that’s a beautiful development of all of our rights and wrongs,” Harris-Till said.
Although Emmett’s death was a significant catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement, he said it was Mamie’s efforts that lasted generations.
“Mamie was the one that partnered with the NAACP at the time to say, ‘This is enough. We can’t move forward and continue to allow this to happen. Something has to be done,'” Harris-Till said.
Harris-Till knows people will have their own opinions about the new monuments, with some not-so-positive, but he said that won’t stop him from advocating for equality.
“I can’t sit around here hating people because of their confusion. I understand their confusion sometimes breeds frustration and anger. But I forgive those people because we’re working on something so much bigger,” Harris-Till said.
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