Summit in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)
Mamie Till-Mobley
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, January 9, 2025
1. Mamie Till-Mobley Marker
[Text etched onto the dais in front of the statue of Mamie Till-Mobley:]
In 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley sparked the Civil Rights Movement speaking on behalf of justice, reconciliation, and human rights. Sixty-seven years after the lynching death of her son, Emmett Till, a law was passed.
An Act
On Monday, January 3rd, 2022
"Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act"
[Text on the front of the dais:]
"We are only given a certain amount of time to do what we were sent here to do. You don't have to be around a long time to share the wisdom of a lifetime. There is no time to waste." ~ Mamie Till-Mobley
[Quote on the side of the dais by Till-Mobley's right hand:]
"Let the people see what I have seen."
Erected 2023 by Argo Community High School.
Topics. This historical marker is listed in these topic lists: African Americans
this page online
Location. 41° 46.622′ N, 87° 48.335′ W. Marker is in Summit, Illinois, in Cook County. It is at the intersection of 63rd Street and 74th Avenue, on the right on 63rd Street. The statue is on the northwest corner of the campus of Argo Community High School. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 7329 West 63rd Street, Summit Argo IL 60501, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in Greater Chicago. It is also in the American Midwest and on the Great Lakes. Globally, it is in North America, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France, the territory of the Mississippian Culture, and the Northwest Territory.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Veterans Memorial (within shouting distance of this marker); Emmett Louis Till (approx. Ό mile away); 3 Anti-Tank Gun M5 (approx. 0.3 miles away); Argo-Summit American Legion Post 735 (approx. 0.4 miles away); The Freedom Run (approx. 0.4 miles away); 9/11 Memorial
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, January 9, 2025
2. Mamie Till-Mobley statue
A quote by Till-Mobley faces the front, above a photograph of her son Emmett. Till-Mobley grew up in Argo (later Summit) and lived near here with her son Emmett for much of his life.
More about this marker. The statue features Mamie Till-Mobley standing in front of a dais; her quotes are embedded, along with a photo of her son, Emmett.
The memorial is part of the Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Memorial Walkway Plaza, which was dedicated by Argo Community High School on April 29, 2023. In addition to the statue and a plaque related to the dedication of the plaza, there are four bollards around the plaza that are pointed towards key locations in the Till story, including the distance from those locations: the Till family home here in Summit (.3 miles west), where Emmett lived for much of his childhood; Tallahatchie Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi (557.1
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, January 9, 2025
3. Mamie Till-Mobley statue and historical text
Visible in the distance are two of the four bollards in the plaza that are pointed towards key locations in Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley's lives. The two pictured here point towards Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, where Emmett's funeral was held in 1955, and Washington, D.C.
The dedication of the plaza occurred, coincidentally, the same week as the death of Carolyn Bryant Donham, whose testimony that Emmett Till had accosted her led to the acquittal of her husband and his half-brother in the trial for Emmett's murder.
Regarding Mamie Till-Mobley. Mamie Till-Mobley became a nationally prominent civil rights activist in the wake of her son's brutal murder in 1955, but prior to that she had strong local links to this community southwest of Chicago, where she attended Argo Community High School and was one of its first Black graduates. Soon after her birth in 1921, her family moved to what was then called Argo (later incorporated into Summit), part
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, January 9, 2025
4. The Mamie Till-Mobley and Emmett Till Memorial Walkway Plaza
The plaza is at the northwest corner of Argo Community High School. Near the flag in the far left background is a veterans memorial erected by a local VFW post.
Soon after graduating she met her first husband, Louis Till, and they had one child, a boy named Emmett who was born in 1941. Mamie and Emmett lived in Summit, about a mile from the high school, before moving to Chicago's south-side Woodlawn neighborhood in the 1950s. In August 1955, Emmett traveled to to visit his cousins in Money, Mississippi. On August 28, 1955, Till, accused of having flirted with a white woman at a grocery store, was abducted, brutally beaten and then murdered, shot in the head and tossed into the Tallahatchie River. The two accused murderers, Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, were acquitted of the murder by an all-white jury, but they later admitted their guilt in a magazine interview.
At Emmett's funeral in Chicago at the Roberts Temple Church of God in
Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, January 9, 2025
5. Tallahatchie Courthouse bollard
Four bollards are placed around the plaza, each pointing to a key location in Emmett Till's story. The Tallahatchie Courthouse in Mississippi is where Emmett's accused murderers were tried and acquitted.
Till-Mobley later became an activist and an educator, teaching in Chicago Public Schools. She died of heart failure in 2003 at the age of 81.
Also see . . .
1. Mamie Till-Mobley sculpture, memorial for son Emmett unveiled at Summit high school she attended. An April 2023 report on the dedication of the plaza in front of Argo Community High School in Summit. (Submitted on January 9, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)
2. Mamie Till Mobley. PBS's American Experience tells the story of Mamie Till-Mobley, whose son Emmett was murdered in 1955 in one of the most notorious crimes in American history.
Excerpt: "Alma Carthan joined her husband in January 1924, and brought their two-year-old daughter Mamie with her. They settled(Submitted on January 9, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)in a predominately black enclave in Argo where everyone knew each other. But Mamie's world was shattered at age 13 when her parents divorced. A bright girl and a good student, Mamie buried herself in her schoolwork.Special Collections & Archives, Florida State University Libraries, circa 19556. Emmett and Mamie Till
"Mamie's mother, a member of the fundamentalist Church of God in Christ, was strict. She had high hopes for her only child. 'In my day, the girls had one ambition -- to get married. Very few kids finished high school,' Mamie would recall. But her parents encouraged her to finish. Mamie was the first black student to make the A Honor roll, and the fourth black student to graduate from the predominately white Argo Community High School."
Credits. This page was last revised on July 6, 2025. It was originally submitted on January 9, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 425 times since then and 31 times this year. Photos: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. submitted on January 9, 2025, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.
