Argo Community High School erected a sculpture honoring Mamie Till-Mobley as well as a walkway named after her son on Saturday. According to ABC7 Chicago, the distinction was bestowed on Till-Mobley by her alma school to commemorate her life and legacy in the Summit community.
She is believed to be one of Argo Community High School’s top alumni. She was not only the fourth student of color to graduate from the school, but she was also the first African-American student to achieve honor roll status at the university.
“This is a great, great honor. She always said, ‘remember the past, and educate the future,’ and we see that happening today,” Ollie Gordon, who is Till-Mobley’s relative, said.
The house where Till-Mobley and her son Emmett formerly lived is not far from the statue and promenade. “We want to make sure her story lives on,” Dr. William Toulios, Superintendent of Argo Community High School District 217, stated.
Till-Mobley, an educator, was regarded as the godmother of the civil rights movement in the mid-1900s. After the heinous murder of her 14-year-old son in 1955, she dedicated her life to combating racial injustice.
In Mississippi, Emmet Till was accused of sexually molesting Carolyn Bryant Donham, a white shopkeeper. The world was saturated in the horrific details of his lynching by Roy Bryant, Carolyn Bryant’s husband, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam. The level of their heinousness was mirrored in the devastation to Emett’s body and the fact that his remains would have gone undetected if it hadn’t been for a ring he received from his late father.
Bryant and Milam were acquitted of Till’s murder by an all-white jury. Both men, who have since deceased, admitted to the murder months later in a paid magazine interview. Donham testified during their trial, alleging Till grabbed and threatened her.
Emmett Till’s death shifted the tone of the civil rights movement, yet the fine young gentleman he became was due to his mother’s influence. Till-Mobley died in 2003 in Chicago.