On January 6, 2022 one of the most impactful and least discussed legacies of a Civil Rights trailblazer will be on ABC for the world to see. That date is the premiere of the first part of ABC’s six-part series Women of the Movement, which chronicles the civil rights journey of Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of 14-year-old Emmett Till, who was savagely murdered by racist white men in August 1955. For so long, Till-Mobley has been largely remembered as the grieving mother of a son whose grotesque death outraged the nation into change. But, she meant much more to the Civil Rights Movement than giving birth to a child who was taken by the evils of racism.
Losing your only child to barbarianism would justifiably send any mother into seclusion as means of self-preservation, especially during 1955, when lynchings were as prevalent as ever. But the then-33-year-old Till-Mobley saw power in her pain. After viewing her son’s mangled body following his murder — eyes hanging out of his skull, face pulverized beyond recognition, teeth missing — she felt broken, but she decided to fight. In her first act of incalculable courage, the bereaved mother requested an open casket funeral for her son, and invited publications like JET magazine. People around the country had to sit with a visceral reminder of what white men did to an innocent Black child in Mississippi.
