By: Samantha Siedow
March 8, 2025
Mayor Johnny Thomas of Glendora, Mississippi, couldn’t shake the feeling that there was more to Emmett Till’s story than widely reported.
While sitting on land originally bought for a failed sweet potato venture, Thomas said inconsistencies in the Till story and new information coming to light gave a new sense of urgency to creating the first museum dedicated to Till.
“Emmett was beginning to bubble up and come alive, and we had all of this history regarding it,” Thomas said.
Students had an emotionally packed experience on the first day of the MLK 3000 immersion trip visiting the Emmett Till Historic Intrepid Center that Thomas founded in 2005 as a way to document lesser-known facts about Till’s story.
Thomas has spent his entire life in Glendora. When asked why he has never moved from the town despite some of its emotional history, he didn’t need any time before responding.
"I don’t know if I have a choice. It’s the spirit in me. That’s what keeps me here,” Thomas said.
Mayor Johnny Thomas on Emmett Till truths
Among the little-known aspects of Till’s murder is a personal connection to Thomas: his father was one of five Black men allegedly forced to take part in the killing.
Thomas’ father worked for J.W. Millam when 14-year-old Emmett Till came to visit family in small-town Money, Mississippi, from his home in Chicago, Thomas said. A white woman named Carolyn Bryant accused Till of whistling at her and grabbing her waist in her family’s grocery store, although years later she confirmed she lied about the latter.
Bryant’s husband, Roy Bryant, and Millam, his half-brother, kidnapped Till from his great-uncle’s home, and tortured him before throwing him in the Tallahatchie River.
Three days after Till’s kidnapping, two boys found Till’s mutilated body while fishing. Photos from his public, open-casket funeral in Chicago that drew thousands of attendees were published in Jet magazine and seen throughout the U.S.
Historians say this was the catalyst of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and ’60s.
Thomas’ father, Henry Lee Loggins, said Bryant and Millam forced him and four other Black men to participate in abducting, torturing and killing Till, according to Thomas. The FBI later investigated the men, including his father, as accomplices.
“That was pretty critical to me as far as them being named accomplices, knowing that under the duress of Jim Crow, there was no way they could say no to whatever they was told to do or what to act like,” Thomas said.
Thomas, the first Black man elected to public office in Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, said the museum was also meant to create a dialogue between the still largely socially segregated Black and white communities in Glendora and its surroundings.
Vianney Cortes Perez, a 24-year-old second-year environmental geography major from Rochester, said “heavy” was a good word to describe the emotions of the day.
"We talked about these stories in class, but seeing them in person and being at the actual site where these horrific things happened— it's hard to wrap my mind around what happened to this kid and the social norms at the time with lynching," Perez said.
Ogenetejiri Ogbemudje, a 20-year-old third-year developmental psychology and neuroscience major from Plymouth, said being at the location of Till’s murder was an emotional experience that brought history to life beyond the pages of a book.
"These are lived experiences, these are people’s lives,” Ogbemudje said. “And if they had the opportunity to live the life that we get to live, based on the experiences that they've gone through, the work that they've put in for us to be able to live this life, what else could they have done? How far could they have gone?"
Thomas said he hopes to keep expanding the museum and using it as a forum for open dialogue and education.
“We'll be 20 years old,” Thomas said. “We've lived longer than Emmett did.”
National Civil Rights Museum and the Lorraine Motel
Students began the day with a guided tour of the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, Tennessee, which features an interactive walkway taking participants through an overview of the history of civil rights leading to present day activism.
The museum, built around the former Lorraine Motel, the assassination site of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., traces the struggle from the abduction of African people during the Transatlantic slave trade to modern-day activism focused on racial equity, immigrant rights and efforts to combat human trafficking.
Outside the museum, students shared moments of laughter and nervous energy, but as they entered, a hushed, subdued mood took over. The interactive exhibits featured sculptures, art, interactive maps and music.
Ellen Chinema, a 20-year-old second-year human physiology major from St. Paul, said she appreciated the museum’s immersion, and was particularly moved by a map showing lynchings across the U.S. Chinema said seeing the three reported in Minnesota hit close to home.
"Ever since we got here, I feel like my body is taking in a lot of frequencies," Chinema said.
Gennise Wilson, administrative specialist for the program, said part of the trip’s importance is showing students they are not far removed from civil rights history, which is a lived memory for many.
"I took buses like this, not segregated, but that’s how they looked growing up," Wilson said, referring to a full-scale replica of the bus Rosa Parks famously refused to give up to a white man in 1955 after being inspired by the murder of Emmett Till.
Abyan Ahmed, a first-year human physiology major from Woodbury, said learning the Civil Rights Movement’s background in class beforehand could not fully prepare him for the experience. Hearing the recorded voices and seeing pictures of activists through the interactive exhibits made the experience more emotional, he said.
"It made you feel like you were there," Ahmed said.