Emmett Till home gets landmark status

CHICAGO — The Chicago home of Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose 1955 lynching galvanized the civil rights movement when his mother insisted his mutilated body be displayed in an open casket, has been granted landmark status. The City Council issued an ordinance that protects the home from demolition.

Emmett, 14, was visiting family in Mississippi on Aug. 28, 1955, when white men stormed into his uncle’s home and snatched Emmett from his bed, accusing him of whistling at a white woman. His body was found three days later. Emmett’s alleged attackers were acquitted.