Emmett Till was an African American boy who was abducted, tortured and lynched by two white men in Mississippi in 1955. His mother, Mamie Till, insisted on an open-casket funeral so that everyone could see her son’s body mangled beyond recognition. Mamie Till would become a renowned civil rights advocate. Her activism brought the world’s attention to the brutal injustices and racism of the time. This helped accelerate the civil rights movement.
This July on the 82nd anniversary of the black teenager’s birth, President Joe Biden honored Emmett Till and his mother Mamie with a new National Monument. “Darkness and denialism can hide much but they erase nothing,” Biden told guests.
While President Biden prepared to honor Emmett and Mamie, GOP presidential candidate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis flunked American history by arguing that slaves benefited from valuable job training.
Meanwhile, many Republican-controlled states are moving to restrict what race-related ideas and Black history can be taught in public schools.
There are many differences between our two major political parties. President Biden is honoring history by making sure we learn from the horrors of the past. Republicans are whitewashing history, hiding much but erasing nothing, and hoping we forget.
