Roberts Temple Church, site of Emmett Till's open-casket funeral, proposed as national monument
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A proposal to preserve Emmett Till's funeral site on the South Side as a national monument is now one step closer to becoming law.
The Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley, and Roberts Temple National Historic Site Act would designate the Bronzeville church that held Emmett Till's pivotal open-casket memorial as a national monument. That means the church would be managed by the U.S. National Park Service.
Illinois U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth and Dick Durbin recently re-introduced the legislation, and said they hope to have a vote in the Senate soon.
Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ already has been designated as an official city of Chicago landmark, as has the home where Till grew up.
The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources held a hearing Wednesday on the proposal to grant the church national monument status, as well as the 1908 Springfield Race Riot National Monument Act, which similarly would create a national monument in the capital city of Illinois, where a race riot broke out in 1908 after two Black men were arrested and accused of crimes against two white women and one of their fathers.
A mob tried to lynch them before they could face trial, but a sheriff had them secreted out of the city, and the mob began burning and terrorizing Black neighborhoods in Springfield, killing at least six Black people, and burning dozens of homes and businesses.
"We have been dedicated to preserving these important parts of our state and nation's history and are committed to seeing the process through. Commemorating these locations and stories of extraordinary cultural and historical importance is long overdue, and we look forward to bringing these bills to a vote in the Senate soon," Durbin and Duckworth said in a joint statement on the two bills.