Mike Quigley: “66 years ago this week, Emmett Till was brutally lynched by two white supremacists. When his body was returned to his…”

“66 years ago this week, Emmett Till was brutally lynched by two white supremacists. When his body was returned to his mother, Mamie Till, in Chicago, she held an open casket funeral because, in her words: ``I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.'' This was a galvanizing moment for the civil rights movement, but it was not the end of Mamie Till-Mobley's activism. She spent the rest of her life touring the country, speaking out about the injustice of her son's murder and the vital importance of eliminating racial discrimination, disenfranchisement, and segregation. She also spent 23 years teaching in the Chicago public school system, continuing to speak to students in the Chicago area about civil rights as late as the year 2000. Today, we are witnessing the reemergence of the kinds of voting discrimination that she spoke out against. We must pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act for Mamie Till, for John Lewis, and for every hero who fought for civil rights.”