Emmett Till national monument designated by Biden

Black teenager's murder and open casket funeral in 1955 helped spark the US civil rights movement

An undated portrait shows Emmett Till, the 14-year-old from Chicago who was visiting relatives in Mississippi in August 1955 when he was kidnapped, tortured and killed after witnesses heard him whistle at a white woman. Till's mother insisted on an open-casket funeral, and 'Jet' magazine published photos of his brutalised body. AP

Mamie Till Mobley weeps at her son's funeral on September 6, 1955, in Chicago, Illinois. The mother of Emmett Till insisted that her son's body be displayed in an open casket forcing the nation to see the brutality directed at blacks in the south at the time. Chicago Sun-Times / AP

Emmett Till's photo is seen on his grave marker in Alsip, Illinois. AP

A sign marking where police recovered the body of 14 -year-old Emmett Till is displayed in the entryway of the Smithsonian Museum of American History in Washington. The marker is one of three replaced at the site where police found Till and is a new addition to the permanent collection at the museum. Getty Images / AFP

A Mississippi Freedom Trail marker sits before the remains of Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Mississippi, where Emmett Till was accused of whistling at a white woman. AP

A private property sign near what was Bryant's Grocery and Meat Market in Money, Mississippi. AP

A large crowd gathers outside the Roberts Temple Church of God In Christ in Chicago, September 6, 1955, as pallbearers carry the casket of Emmett Till. AP

Four-year-old Senty Banutu-Gomez holds a photograph of Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy who was lynched in 1955, on the anniversary of the murder of George Floyd by police in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Reuters

Representative Bobby Rush speaks during a news conference about the Emmett Till Antilynching Act on Capitol Hill in Washington. AP

Radio host Joe Madison hugs Representative Bobby Rush as they arrive for a bill enrolment ceremony for the Emmett Till Antilynching Act in Washington. Getty Images / AFP

Deborah Watts and Priscilla Sterling, cousins of Emmett Till, show a document used by Mississippi Attorney General Office representative Wayne Lynch to indicate receipt of a poster and accompanying thumb drive that reportedly holds almost 300,000 signatures on a petition seeking a renewed investigation into Till's 1955 lynching. AP

Deborah Watts, a cousin of Emmett Till, holds a poster and the thumb drive. AP

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signs HR 55, the 'Emmett Till Antilynching Act', which designates lynching as a hate crime under federal law, during a ceremony on Capitol Hill in Washington, with Democratic Representatives Bennie Thompson, Joyce Beatty, Bobby Rush, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and radio host Joe Madison. AP

President Joe Biden on Tuesday honoured Emmett Till, a black Chicago teenager whose lynching in 1955 helped to spur the civil rights movement in the US, by designating a national monument to him and his mother.

At the age of 14 while visiting relatives in Money, Mississippi, Emmett was kidnapped, beaten, mutilated, shot and thrown into a river after Carolyn Bryant, a white shopkeeper, accused him of wolf whistling at her.

His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, held an open casket funeral so the world could see what a racist murder had done to her son.

Images of his body, published by Jet magazine in September 1955, politicised a generation of African-Americans.

The White House said the monument will tell the story of Emmett's murder, its significance in the civil rights movement and the “history of black oppression, survival and bravery” in the US.

The designation comes as the US again struggles to confront its racist history.

Republicans have supported book bans that have resulted in texts dealing with race removed from schools, and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has sought to downplay the history of racism in the state's school curriculum.

"Darkness and denialism can hide much but they erase nothing," Mr Biden said during a proclamation signing ceremony at the White House complex.

"We can't just choose to learn what we want to know."

Added Vice President Kamala Harris: "Today there are those in our nation who prefer to erase or even rewrite the ugly parts of our past, those who attempt to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery," alluding to reported comments made by Mr DeSantis that some enslaved people benefited from learning a craft.

The monument will be located across three sites in the states of Illinois and Mississippi.

“These sites are central to Emmett Till’s racially motivated murder in 1955 and the defining events that followed – including the courageous activism and leadership of his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley,” the White House said.

One of the sites, Graball Landing in rural Mississippi, is believed to be the location where Emmett's body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River. The second site will be at the Chicago church where Ms Till-Mobley held the open-casket funeral for her son.

An all-white jury in Mississippi acquitted JW Milam and Roy Bryant, the two killers – who later admitted to the murder – after deliberating for one hour in a segregated courtroom.

The courthouse will be the third monument site to Till.