Jewish people have a saying: “Never again”

It refers to them keeping a vigilant watch so that atrocities like the Holocaust never happen again. As a black person, I hope that my people adopt that same mentality. Part of developing this mentality is to come face to face with the horrors of the past and learning of how we dealt with and overcame particular struggles. I don’t believe I am alone in this hope.

In my heart, I have to believe that this was part of the motivation in Mississipi’s opening of a museum honoring the memory of Emmett Louis Till.

If you aren’t familiar with the story of Emmett Till, he was a 14-year-old Chicago native who was visiting family in Mississippi in the summer of 1955. Not knowing the “rules” of Mississippi, he flirted with a white woman by whistling at her. For this “transgression” he was brutally tortured and murdered. His body was later dumped in the Tallahatchie River.

An all-white jury quickly acquitted two men of the murder. Later, the two men bragged about the killing in an interview.

The Till murder gained national acclaim due to the strength of Emmett’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, who, despite the grotesque condition in which her son’s body was left, insisted on an open casket at his funeral. The exposed America to the shock and savagery of Southern racism and, in no small part, helped spark the modern Civil Rights movement.

So, it is only fitting that, in the place where Emmett Till met his unwarrented demise, a museum be put in place honoring his sacrifice. Let’s hope that this serves as a reminder for us to say, “Never again!”

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