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July 24 (UPI) -- Emmett Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley will be honored with three national monuments in Illinois and Mississippi. President Joe Biden will designate the national monuments on Tuesday, which would have been Till's 82nd birthday.
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Till was born in Chicago on July 25, 1941. One of the national monument sites will be the Temple Church of God in Christ in the Bronzeville neighborhood on Chicago's South Side. Till's funeral was held in the church.
Another site will be Graball Landing in Tallahatchie County, Miss. This is where Till's body was believed to have been found in the Tallahatchie River on Aug. 31, 1955.
The third site is the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Miss. It was there that Till's killers, Roy Bryant and John Milam, were acquitted by an all-white jury on Sept. 23, 1955.
Bryant and Milam later confessed to abducting, torturing and killing Till, a 14-year-old Black child.
Mamie Till-Mobley became a prominent figure in the civil rights movement after choosing to keep Till's casket open during his funeral, displaying the brutality committed against her child. She would continue to advocate for racial equality and justice until her death in 2003.
On Sunday, a groundbreaking was held at Till's childhood home on Saint Lawrence Street in Chicago. Renovations will turn the home into a museum honoring Till. It is expected to be completed by 2025.
An interactive art installation by Chicago native Germane Barnes opened outside of the home on Sunday, as well. The installation, titled "Be Careful, I Always Am," features phrases spoken by Till-Mobley printed to colorful vinyl panels.
National monuments are "nationally significant lands and waters set aside for permanent protection," according to the National Park Service.
