""The Barn: The Secret History of a Murder in Mississippi" by Wright Thompson, released in 2024, uses the barn and its land as a lens to examine deep‐rooted structural racism, land and power while looking at Till's lynching. He describes how witnesses heard Till's cry for help and how other Black Americans looked away from the barn when passing by through the decades. Following the lynching, Till's mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted the world see her son's brutalized body, igniting anger and the drive for equal rights for Black Americans."
""Our board voted to pay the $1.5 million that was necessary to protect the site," the center said in a statement. "We chose preservation over risk, and truth over silence - because you can't put a price on our history.""
""This is a monumental achievement in our mission to preserve the complete truth of Emmett Till's story," said Patrick Weems, the center's executive director. "Without this purchase, this sacred ground could have been destroyed or lost forever. We saved it so that truth could keep shaping us and future generations can stand where history happened.""
The Emmett Till Interpretive Center acquired the barn and surrounding land tied to Emmett Till's 1955 murder to prevent loss or destruction. The center's board voted to pay $1.5 million to protect the site and prioritized preservation over risk. A financial gift from The Rhimes Foundation enabled the purchase. The barn stands as a critical physical remnant of Till's lynching and a focal point for examining structural racism, land, and power. The previous owner did not tear the barn down but used it for storage and never treated it as a historic or sacred place. The center has spent nearly two decades preserving Emmett Till's history.
Read at Axios
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