I 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 7272 

To provide for the issuance of a commemorative postage stamp in honor 

of Mamie Till-Mobley, and for other purposes. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

JUNE 18, 2020 

Mr. RUSH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee 

on Oversight and Reform 

A BILL 

To provide for the issuance of a commemorative postage 

stamp in honor of Mamie Till-Mobley, and for other 

purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Mamie Till-Mobley Me5 morial Stamp Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 The Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Emmett Louis Till was born to Mamie Eliz9 abeth Till-Mobley on July 25, 1941, in Chicago, Illi10 nois. 


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1 (2) Emmett Till was raised by Mamie Till2 Mobley in the Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago’s 

3 South Side, attending the nearby McCosh Elemen4 tary School. 

5 (3) In August of 1955, Emmett Till traveled to 

6 Tallahatchie County, Mississippi, to visit his great 

7 uncle, Moses Wright. 

8 (4) Before Emmett Till traveled to Tallahatchie 

9 County, Mamie Till-Mobley cautioned him about the 

10 dangers of the segregated South, instructing him to 

11 ‘‘be very careful . . . humble himself to the extent 

12 of getting down on his knees’’. 

13 (5) When purchasing bubble gum in Money, 

14 Mississippi, Emmett Till was falsely accused of flirt15 ing with shopkeeper Carolyn Bryant, who would ac16 knowledge that her own claims were false in 2017. 

17 (6) Emmett Till was abducted at gunpoint from 

18 Moses Wright’s home by Roy Bryant and J.W. 

19 Milam on August 28, 1955. 

20 (7) Full of vitriol and racial hatred, Roy Bryant 

21 and J.W. Milam beat, tortured, and killed Emmett 

22 Till with senseless brutality. 

23 (8) Emmett Till’s body was found in the 

24 Tallahatchie River, having been so gruesomely torVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:20 Jul 10, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H7272.IH H7272

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1 tured that it was only recognizable from his father’s 

2 ring on his finger. 

3 (9) When Emmett Till’s body was recovered, 

4 his ear was found torn, his eye was displaced, his 

5 teeth were missing, and the iron cotton gin fan used 

6 in his murder was still attached to his corpse. 

7 (10) On September 2, 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley 

8 received her son’s casket at the Illinois Central Ter9 minal, falling in grief at its sight. 

10 (11) Mamie Till-Mobley demonstrated exem11 plary bravery, requesting an open-casket funeral for 

12 her son, because in her words, ‘‘everybody needed to 

13 know what had happened to Emmett Till’’. 

14 (12) Over a four-day period, over 50,000 visi15 tors viewed Emmett Till’s body at the Roberts Tem16 ple Church of God in Christ. 

17 (13) The horror and grief caused across the 

18 country and across the world by the photos of 

19 Emmet Till’s body helped spark the civil rights 

20 movement. 

21 (14) The Reverend Jesse Jackson would de22 scribe Emmett Till’s open-casket funeral as the 

23 ‘‘big-bang’’ of the civil rights movement. 

24 (15) Emmett Till was laid to rest at Burr Oak 

25 Cemetery on September 6, 1955, in Alsip, Illinois. 


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1 (16) During the trial, Moses Wright and other 

2 local residents demonstrated unspeakable courage by 

3 identifying Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam as Emmett 

4 Till’s killers in open court. 

5 (17) The all White jury deliberated for just 67 

6 minutes, arriving at their preposterous verdict to ac7 quit Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam. 

8 (18) In a January 1965 interview with Look 

9 magazine, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam admitted to 

10 having gruesomely killed Emmett Till. 

11 (19) Mamie Till-Mobley continued to be a 

12 champion for civil rights after Emmett Till’s death 

13 and funeral. 

14 (20) Mamie Till-Mobley would earn a bachelor’s 

15 degree cum laude from Chicago Teachers College in 

16 1956 and earned a master’s degree in administra17 tion and supervision from Loyola University Chicago 

18 in 1975. 

19 (21) Mamie Till-Mobley distinguished herself as 

20 a special education teacher in Chicago. 

21 (22) Mamie Till-Mobley authored ‘‘Death of In22 nocence’’, with Christopher Benson, which was pub23 lished months after her passing. 

24 (23) Mamie Till-Mobley passed away on Janu25 ary 7, 2003, at the age of 81. 


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1 (24) On February 26, 2020, the House passed 

2 H.R. 35, the Emmett Till Antilynching Act to com3 memorate the life of Emmett Till, make lynching a 

4 Federal crime, and correct a deep historical injus5 tice. 

6 SEC. 3. MAMIE TILL-MOBLEY COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE 

7 STAMP. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Postmaster General shall 

9 issue a commemorative postage stamp in honor of Mamie 

10 Till-Mobley. 

11 (b) DENOMINATION; DESIGNS.—The commemorative 

12 postage stamp issued under this Act shall be issued in the 

13 denomination used for first class mail up to one ounce in 

14 weight and shall bear such designs as the Postmaster Gen15 eral shall determine. 

16 (c) ISSUANCE PERIOD.—The commemorative postage 

17 stamp issued under this Act shall be placed on sale as 

18 soon as practicable after the date of the enactment of this 

19 Act and shall be sold for such period thereafter as the 

20 Postmaster General shall determine. 

Æ 


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