Daily Herald opinion: Till monument wil be vivid, important reminder of race conversations we still need to have

This editorial is a consensus opinion of the Daily Herald Editorial Board.

An auspicious announcement will mark what would have been Emmett Till's 82nd birthday today when President Joe Biden establishes a national monument to the Black teenager from Chicago and his mother.

Till, who was visiting family in the Mississippi Delta, was brutally murdered on Aug. 28, 1955, after a white woman said he had whistled at her in a store where he had gone to buy candy with some friends and cousins. When his mother demanded that her son's casket remain open during his memorial services as a testament to the brutality of his death, the teenager's death horrified the nation and helped propel the young civil rights movement in America.

Ghastly as it was, the Till story would have much to say about racial attitudes of the time, especially in the American South, beyond the grisly facts of his torture and killing. After all-white juries found Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam not guilty both of the murder and of kidnapping Till and the men could not be retried, they admitted killing the teenager. Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, wanted to be sure the story was told, insisting that "the whole nation had to bear witness to this," and she would go on to become active in the drive for equal rights.

Much, of course, has changed in American society in the 68 years since Till's murder. Our laws and institutions have made huge advances toward justice and equality, and social attitudes have followed suit virtually everywhere in the country. But our race conversation is far from over and still open to unsettling disruptions.

The Florida state Board of Education's astonishing decision last week approving a curriculum on race that teaches that African American slaves were benefitted by learning skills they would need to advance in free society provides a clear example of tone-deaf policies that somehow still make it into public debate.

So, monuments like that being established today have an important role to play in shaping our national consciousness. Biden's declaration will create opportunities for an accurate and permanent reminder of the impact of racial hatred - and hopefully the chance that we can one day truly eradicate this scourge from our lives and our conversations.

In a joint statement from various partners who have lobbied for the monument declaration, the Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., a cousin and witness to Emmet Till's kidnapping, praised the action.

"This national monument designation makes certain that Emmett Till's life and legacy, along with his mother Mamie Till Mobley's social action and impact, will live on and be used to inspire others to create a more just and equitable society," Parker said.

It is perhaps a grim way to celebrate someone's 82nd birthday, but it is indeed an important and a welcome one