The Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago (MoCP) is honored to mount an initiative born in collaboration between Sarah Elizabeth Lewis and Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr., Emmett Till’s cousin, best friend, and the last surviving witness to his kidnapping. In the wake of what would have been Till’s 85th birthday, our project engages individuals and institutions around the country as we ask, “What would Emmett Till’s life have been had he safely boarded the train back home to Chicago? What would that life have required of us all? Have we made good on his sacrifice?”
At a moment when history is being fiercely contested, and violent opposition still remains to the very idea of honoring Till’s memory, this project serves as a creative monument to his unlived life and continuing legacy.
The exhibition, If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground brings together photographs by more than 110 artists from MoCP’s permanent collection, inviting viewers to imagine and meditate on the years that Till missed.