New Photography Exhibit in Chicago Honors Emmett Till's Legacy, Imagining His Unlived Life
A new photography exhibit titled 'If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground' has opened at Columbia College in Chicago. The exhibit, curated in part by Emmett Till's cousin and last surviving witness to his kidnapping, Wheeler Parker Jr., features contributions from over 110 artists. It aims to honor Till's legacy by inviting viewers to imagine the life he might have lived had he not been brutally murdered in 1955. Till, a 14-year-old African American boy, was lynched in Mississippi after being accused of whistling at a white woman. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open-casket funeral to expose the brutality of his death, which became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement. The exhibition brings together photographs from the Museum of Contemporary Photography's permanent collection and includes a standalone publication with original essays.
