Barn Where Emmett Till Was Killed To Be Turned Into A Memorial
Shonda Rhimes Donates $1.5M To Turn Barn Where Emmett Till Was Killed Into Memorial Ahead Of The 75th Anniversary Of His Lynching
The Mississippi Delta barn where Emmett Till was tortured and killed in 1955 is now set to be preserved and rebuilt as a “sacred” site dedicated to honoring the 14-year-old’s life and the tragedy that reshaped the civil rights movement.
On Nov. 24 — the day after the birthday of Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother — the Emmett Till Interpretive Center announced that it had acquired the barn. The purchase was made possible through a $1.5 million donation from TV producer Shonda Rhimes and contributions from local residents, according to a press release. Reflecting on the purpose of the restoration, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center wrote, “We did not save this place to dwell in grief. We saved it so that truth could keep shaping us.”
RELATED CONTENT: Carolyn Bryant Donham Won’t Go To Trial For Emmett Till’s Murder
By 2030, the 75th anniversary of Emmett Till’s lynching, the organization plans to open the reconstructed barn as part of a broader public memorial, a place intended for truth-telling, creative reflection, and civic awareness. Visitors, they said, will not come simply to witness tragedy, but to consider their own responsibility in the ongoing struggle for democracy.
“That faith still calls to us,” Rhimes added. “The barn carries her same charge: to help the world see.”
Rhimes, who was moved to act after learning about the barn, told Good Morning America host Robin Roberts in 2023, “My hope is that this story never gets lost.”
What happened to Emmett Till?
According to Mississippi Today, around 2 a.m. on Aug. 28, 1955, J.W. Milam, his brother Roy Bryant, and others abducted the 14-year-old Black boy from the home of his great-uncle in Sumner County, Mississippi. They took him to the barn, where they beat and killed him. Till was murdered after a false accusation by a white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, who claimed during testimony that Till grabbed her hand and waist and propositioned her, saying he had been with “White women before.” Donham, who died in 2023, later became central to the reassessment of the case.
Eyewitness Willie Reed recounted hearing Till’s screams inside the barn. He saw the men who had taken the teen there and allegedly heard the blows and terror that would later reverberate across generations. Reed became one of the few people in Mississippi willing to speak publicly about what he had witnessed, ensuring that the full truth could not be erased.
Mamie Till insisted on an open casket on Sept. 6, 1955, “to let the world see what they did to my son.” Thousands came to view Emmett’s body, many weeping, fainting, or left forever changed after viewing his mutilated body.
Months later, Milam and Bryant admitted to authorities that they had kidnapped him, but claimed they released him unharmed. They were tried for murder one month later, but an all-white jury acquitted them. Till would receive some justice after their acquittal when the brothers confessed in Look magazine that they had killed Till, though double jeopardy protections prevented further prosecution.
Speaking to Mississippi Today, Dave Tell, author of Remembering Emmett Till, said the barn was “written out of history by the very men who committed the crime, there erased from public memory as part of a broader effort to bury the truth and protect white perpetrators.”
According to Tell, the Look magazine account also intentionally hid the existence of the barn because acknowledging it would expose the involvement of additional perpetrators, some of whom worked there.
“Till was killed because of racism. And the barn was pushed out of public memory because of racism. It’s all part of the same story.”
Carolyn Bryant never publicly addressed the incident again. However, Duke University senior research scholar Timothy Tyson wrote that in 2007, she admitted she had lied about Till’s alleged advances. In The Blood of Emmett Till, Tyson recounts her saying, “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” according to the Equal Justice Initiative.
Local resident Jeff Andrews purchased the barn where Till was killed in 1994, and after learning its history, welcomed Till’s family members and other visitors. According to filmmaker Keith Beauchamp, producer of Till and director-producer of The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till, Andrews’ commitment to “maintaining the barn and welcoming the public, kept the site meaningful long before any official preservation began,” Mississippi Today noted.
RELATED CONTENT: Emmett Till’s Family Still Seeks Justice Against His Accuser Carolyn Bryant
