FSU hosts 2nd annual Emmett Till Archives lecture series

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) - Florida State University hosted its 2nd annual Emmett Till Archives lecture Series Tuesday evening, hosting a leading expert on Emmett Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.

University of Kentucky Assistant Professor Brandon Erby focused his comments on Till-Mobley’s activism in the decades after her son was lynched in Mississippi in 1955.

Erby spoke with WCTV ahead of the lecture.

“We know her as someone who opened up her son’s casket, but we also need to know her as an orator,” he said.

“I think she was very invested in speaking well in front of audiences, telling particular stories about who she is as a mother and who her son was as a son, as an American child.”

Florida State is home to one of the world’s leading archives of material related to the case. Erby said he plans to use the archive to use in his research of Till-Mobley moving forward.

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