August 26, 2026
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Remembering Emmett Till Is a Public Responsibility
Last month, on July 23, just two days before what would have been Emmett Till's 85th birthday, I stood inside Roberts Temple Church of God in Bronzeville as Governor JB Pritzker signed legislation I sponsored establishing July 25 as Emmett Till Day in Illinois. There could be no more meaningful place for this moment. Roberts Temple is where Mamie Till Mobley made one of the most courageous decisions in American history by holding an open-casket funeral for her 14-year-old son after he was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955.