President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation on Tuesday establishing a national monument at three locations in Illinois and Mississippi honoring Emmett Till, the Black Chicago teenager tortured to death by a group of white men after allegedly whistling at a white woman while visiting Mississippi, the Associated Press reports.
The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument will remember the impact Emmett’s death had on the nation, as well as the strength and bravery his mother showed after his murder to expose the brutality of the white supremacy power structure in the South that allowed the murderers to be acquitted in an unfair trial.
The announcement will be made on what would have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday, and it comes as conservatives attempt to erase or minimize white racism in American history, such as Florida Republican Governor Ron DeSantis’s requirement that schools in the state teach that slaves were taught skills that benefited them.