‘If Emmett Till Lived’ opened in Chicago
“If Emmett Till Lived,” the exhibition at the heart of a multiphase “creative monument” envisioned by curator, author, and Harvard professor Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, opened September 10, 2025, at the Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago with an historic convening of cultural and political leaders.
Joining Sarah Lewis at the convening alongside the exhibition’s co-curator, Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. —Emmett Till’s cousin, best friend, and the last surviving witness to his kidnapping— were speakers including:
- Photographer Dawoud Bey
- President and CEO of the Charles F. Kettering Foundation Sharon L. Davies
- Director and Co-Founder of Monument Lab Paul M. Farber
- Howard University Professor of Civil Rights Sherrilyn Ifill
- Former Mayor of New Orleans Mitch Landrieu
- President and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation Brent Leggs
- Photographer and educator Cecil McDonald, Jr.
- Interdisciplinary artist avery r. young
Together, these scholars, activists, and creative leaders considered the implications of the questions that the initiative has posed across the exhibition, book, and related events: Can we envision the full life Emmett Till could have experienced? What could that life have meant for our own? What would that life have required of us all?
In selecting and commenting on photographs that enable us to imagine Till’s unlived life, Sarah Lewis and Reverend Wheeler Parker Jr. have been joined by outstanding collaborators who include Lonnie G. Bunch III, Chelsea Clinton, Ava DuVernay, Alicia Garza, Colin Kaepernick, John Legend, Franklin Leonard, Wynton Marsalis, David Oyelowo, Dr. Marvel Parker, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, RaMell Ross, Yara Shahidi, Amy Sherald, Hank Willis Thomas, Hamza Walker, Patrick Weems, and Deborah Willis.
Heralding the opening of the exhibition and publication of the concurrent book, the Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the site of Emmett Till’s funeral in 1955, for the first time illuminated a replica of its historic neon sign. The sign has been re-created as part of a comprehensive effort to preserve the church and restore the façade to its 1955 appearance.
A dedicated website—www.ifemmettlived.org—provides the public with expanded information about the exhibition, its related public programs, and all other aspects of the initiative to establish this creative monument.
‘If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground’
September 10 – December 19, 2026 Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago
A selection of evocative pictures from the Museum’s outstanding collection invites viewers to imagine, and meditate on, the decades of living that Emmett Till missed from 1955 to the present. Here are railroad lines that might have taken him not only from Chicago to Mississippi but on journeys from coast to coast, daily encounters he might have had on neighborhood streets and playgrounds, and civil rights struggles witnessed and joined. Here, too, are meals shared, marriage and fatherhood celebrated, and events that might have brought Emmett Till joy and wonder, whether from Michael Jordan leading the Chicago Bulls to six championships or Barack Obama winning the White House.
The multigenerational photographers represented range from Henri Cartier-Bresson, Dorothea Lange, and Gordon Parks to Dawoud Bey, Teju Cole, Laylah Amatullah Barrayn, Carrie Mae Weems, and Stephen Marc.
‘If Emmett Till Lived: A Creative Monument”
Published by MoCP/DelMonico Books•D.A.P.
Edited by Sarah Lewis, with essays by Lonnie G. Bunch III, Vinson Cunningham, Sherrilyn Ifill, Paul M. Farber, Siddhartha Mitter, Jeneé Osterheldt, and Patrick Weems, If Emmett Till Lived: A Creative Monument honors the life, death, and legacy of Emmett Till through a kaleidoscope of 20th- and 21st-century photographs and accompanying essays. Also included is a special section of photographs selected and commented on by Dr. Marvel Parker and Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., along with Lonnie G. Bunch III, Chelsea Clinton, Rhea L. Combs, Ava DuVernay, Paul M. Farber, Alicia Garza, John Legend, Brent Leggs, Franklin Leonard, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, RaMell Ross, Amy Sherald, Hank Willis Thomas, and Deborah Willis.
Hardcover, 8x2x10.5 in., 256 pages, with 90 color and 105 duotone images. ISBN 9781636812311. List price $49.95.
