Mamie Till-Mobley Memorial Stamp Act
Bill: H.R.4581 | Sponsor: Rep. Rush, Bobby L. (D-IL)
Policy area: Civil Rights and Liberties, Minority Issues

Summary:
Mamie Till-Mobley Memorial Stamp Act
This bill directs the U.S. Postal Service to issue a commemorative postage stamp in honor of Mamie Till-Mobley, the mother of Emmett Till (who was kidnapped and lynched in 1955).

To provide for the issuance of a commemorative postage stamp in honor 
             of Mamie Till-Mobley, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Mamie Till-Mobley Memorial Stamp 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Emmett Louis Till was born to Mamie Elizabeth Till-
        Mobley on July 25, 1941, in Chicago, Illinois.
            (2) Emmett Till was raised by Mamie Till-Mobley in the 
        Woodlawn neighborhood of Chicago's South Side, attending the 
        nearby McCosh Elementary School.
            (3) In August of 1955, Emmett Till traveled to Tallahatchie 
        County, Mississippi, to visit his great uncle, Moses Wright.
            (4) Before Emmett Till traveled to Tallahatchie County, 
        Mamie Till-Mobley cautioned him about the dangers of the 
        segregated South, instructing him to ``be very careful . . . 
        humble himself to the extent of getting down on his knees''.
            (5) When purchasing bubble gum in Money, Mississippi, 
        Emmett Till was falsely accused of flirting with shopkeeper 
        Carolyn Bryant, who would acknowledge that her own claims were 
        false in 2017.
            (6) Emmett Till was abducted at gunpoint from Moses 
        Wright's home by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam on August 28, 1955.
            (7) Full of vitriol and racial hatred, Roy Bryant and J.W. 
        Milam beat, tortured, and killed Emmett Till with senseless 
        brutality.
            (8) Emmett Till's body was found in the Tallahatchie River, 
        having been so gruesomely tortured that it was only 
        recognizable from his father's ring on his finger.
            (9) When Emmett Till's body was recovered, his ear was 
        found torn, his eye was displaced, his teeth were missing, and 
        the iron cotton gin fan used in his murder was still attached 
        to his corpse.
            (10) On September 2, 1955, Mamie Till-Mobley received her 
        son's casket at the Illinois Central Terminal, falling in grief 
        at its sight.
            (11) Mamie Till-Mobley demonstrated exemplary bravery, 
        requesting an open-casket funeral for her son, because in her 
        words, ``everybody needed to know what had happened to Emmett 
        Till''.
            (12) Over a four-day period, over 50,000 visitors viewed 
        Emmett Till's body at the Roberts Temple Church of God in 
        Christ.
            (13) The horror and grief caused across the country and 
        across the world by the photos of Emmet Till's body helped 
        spark the civil rights movement.
            (14) The Reverend Jesse Jackson would describe Emmett 
        Till's open-casket funeral as the ``big-bang'' of the civil 
        rights movement.
            (15) Emmett Till was laid to rest at Burr Oak Cemetery on 
        September 6, 1955, in Alsip, Illinois.
            (16) During the trial, Moses Wright and other local 
        residents demonstrated unspeakable courage by identifying Roy 
        Bryant and J.W. Milam as Emmett Till's killers in open court.
            (17) The all White jury deliberated for just 67 minutes, 
        arriving at their preposterous verdict to acquit Roy Bryant and 
        J.W. Milam.
            (18) In a January 1965 interview with Look magazine, Roy 
        Bryant and J.W. Milam admitted to having gruesomely killed 
        Emmett Till.
            (19) Mamie Till-Mobley continued to be a champion for civil 
        rights after Emmett Till's death and funeral.
            (20) Mamie Till-Mobley would earn a bachelor's degree cum 
        laude from Chicago Teachers College in 1956 and earned a 
        master's degree in administration and supervision from Loyola 
        University Chicago in 1975.
            (21) Mamie Till-Mobley distinguished herself as a special 
        education teacher in Chicago.
            (22) Mamie Till-Mobley authored ``Death of Innocence'', 
        with Christopher Benson, which was published months after her 
        passing.
            (23) Mamie Till-Mobley passed away on January 7, 2003, at 
        the age of 81.
            (24) On February 26, 2020, the House passed H.R. 35, the 
        Emmett Till Antilynching Act to commemorate the life of Emmett 
        Till, make lynching a Federal crime, and correct a deep 
        historical injustice.

SEC. 3. MAMIE TILL-MOBLEY COMMEMORATIVE POSTAGE STAMP.

    (a) In General.--The Postmaster General shall issue a commemorative 
postage stamp in honor of Mamie Till-Mobley.
    (b) Denomination; Designs.--The commemorative postage stamp issued 
under this Act shall be issued in the denomination used for first class 
mail up to one ounce in weight and shall bear such designs as the 
Postmaster General shall determine.
    (c) Issuance Period.--The commemorative postage stamp issued under 
this Act shall be placed on sale as soon as practicable after the date 
of the enactment of this Act and shall be sold for such period 
thereafter as the Postmaster General shall determine.
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