BRONZEVILLE — Hundreds gathered Sunday to honor Emmett Till on the 60th anniversary of his funeral in Bronzeville.
The "gospel regeneration" service, which included speeches and recognitions intermeshed with gospel and spoken word performances, was held at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the same church where Till's battered body was displayed in an open casket at his 1955 funeral.
On Aug. 28, 1955, Till was kidnapped and murdered by white men in Mississippi during a family visit from his native Chicago.
Sunday's service was the fourth event in a weekend of commemorations organized by Till's living family. They held a wreath-laying ceremony and a tribute dinner Friday, and a "youth empowerment day" Saturday.
Sunday's event was attended by more than a dozen mothers of people killed by racial or police violence, including Geneva Reed-Veal, the mother of Sandra Bland, who died in police custody in Texas last month.
Including victims of racial injustice, said head organizer Airica Gordon-Taylor, was part of a conscious effort to thrust Till's legacy into the present day.
"We want all of these families to connect, to show how they all fit into the climate of today and everything that's going on," Gordon-Taylor said after the event. "We want people to be educationally and spiritually motivated to fight all this injustice, to keep the fight going."
The Rev. Jesse Jackson and the Rev. Al Sharpton were both slated so speak at Sunday's event, but neither attended.
Rainbow PUSH Senior Adviser Rev. Janette Wilson spoke on behalf of Jackson, whom she said had a last-minute family emergency.
"We've become comfortable with unemployment, with a failed education system, with a penal system full of young black men," Wilson said. "Sixty years ago [Till's] death sparked a revolution, and suddenly we as a country were no longer comfortable with injustice. The same needs to happen today."
Even though Sharpton didn't attend, Gordon-Taylor said he would donate $50,000 to the Mamie Till Mobley Memorial Foundation.
Activist priest the Rev. Michael Pfleger gave a fiery speech in which he said the United States should be "ashamed and disgraced" at the state of racial justice across the country.
"Yes, we've come here to remember Emmett, but we must not just remember ... we have to interrupt the death march of all our children walking to the music of racism," Pfleger said. "We need to interrupt easy access to guns, interrupt the mounting horror of violence, interrupt people calling our children thugs and criminals."
Between speeches, organizers handed out placards to honor some of the lesser-known background players of Till's story, including the witnesses who testified at the trial of his killers and the mortician who helped prepare the boy's body for an open casket.
One of the honorees in attendance was Wheeler Parker, Till's cousin, who witnessed Till's kidnapping as a 16-year-old. The message sent by Till's death, he said, still resonates today.
"We're here today because 60 years after his death, Emmett still speaks today," Parker said. "Films have been made, lives have been changed, our culture has changed — all because Emmett still speaks."
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