Chicago Museum of History unveils Emmett Till exhibit

CHICAGO (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - The Chicago Museum of History has a new exhibit on the life of Chicago native Emmett Till.

Till was 14-years-old when he was abducted and killed in Mississippi. His mutilated body was returned to Chicago and put on display before he was buried in 1955.

"A lot of people don't really think about Emmett Till's life, his 14 years before that tragedy. So, a lot of this exhibition begins with his life here in Chicago as that young child," said Charles Bethea, the museum's curator.

The exhibition, Injustice: The Trial for the Murder of Emmett Till, helps museumgoers see the young Chicagoan in a different light.

Bethea says it also helps us understand the importance of what happened to him:

"Reverend Willard Parker, Emmett Till's cousin and best friend, who is the last living person that was there the night that Emmett was abducted from his uncle's house, and last living relative to see him alive, he attributes Emmett Till as being the first Black Lives Matter story, because when you think about what happened to Emmett Till, his tragic ending is what really sparked the Civil Rights Movement and got more and more people involved, because enough was enough.

And when Mamie Till was so courageous to put the images of his mutilated body in the pages of Jet Magazine and the Chicago Defender, it did something to a lot of people. It made them want to get more involved And so when you start talking about what's going on with the atrocities today, about how people are discussing eroding history and only talking about the wonderful things that have happened, well, finding some semblance of positivity as to what happened to Emmett Till and what all of things came afterwards as far as the Voting Rights Act and things with the Civil Rights Movement, that happened because Emmett Till gave up his life."

To learn more about the exhibit, click here.