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Emmett Till Interpretive Center

Emmett Till Interpretive Center addresses traumas of racist violence to foster healing in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi and beyond, by engaging the public in memorializing Emmett Till, the fourteen-year-old Black teenager who was brutally kidnapped and murdered in 1955. Patrick Weems, one of its cofounders and director, works with a multiracial collective through community-based programs to restore the courthouse and install new historic markers.
 
The Center grew out of the Emmett Till Memorial Commission, formed to address the lack of justice in the historic case of Till’s murder. This commission consisted of a multiracial group of citizens and delivered a formal apology to Till’s family in a ceremony at the Sumner Courthouse in 2007. 
 
Currently, Weems and team are in the process of envisioning and proposing a multisite Emmett Till National Park that stretches from the Mississippi Delta to Till’s hometown of Chicago.

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Patrick Weems

Patrick Weems

© Patrick Weems

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TOP LEFT: Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, 2020; BOTTOM LEFT: Protest of Lost Cause state in Sumner, Mississippi, on the 65th anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder, August 28, 2020. RIGHT: Graball Landing, Bullet Proof Historical Marker in Sumner, Mississippi, 2020

TOP LEFT: Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi, 2020;

BOTTOM LEFT: Protest of Lost Cause state in Sumner, Mississippi, on the 65th anniversary of Emmett Till’s murder, August 28, 2020.

RIGHT: Graball Landing, Bullet Proof Historical Marker in Sumner, Mississippi, 2020

Courtesy of Patrick Weems. Photos by Langdon Clay.

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River Site Historical Marker in Sumner, Mississippi, 2020

River Site Historical Marker in Sumner, Mississippi, 2020

Courtesy of the artist; Photo by Langdon Clay

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