Mississippi barn where Emmett Till was killed will reopen as memorial after $1.5 million donation from Shonda Rhimes

The barn in Mississippi where 14-year-old Emmett Till was tortured and killed will open to the public as a ‘sacred’ memorial site by 2030 thanks to a generous donation from television producer and writer Shonda Rhimes.

The Emmett Till Interpretive Center disclosed late Sunday that it had purchased the barn located in a rural area outside the city of Drew, aided by a $1.5 million donation from the Greys Anatomy producer.

She had been moved to contribute to the fund after reading about the barn, telling Good Morning America: ‘My hope is that this story never gets lost.’

It was around 2am on August 28, 1955 when JW Milam, his brother Roy Bryant and others abducted the teenager from his great-uncle’s home and took him to the barn, where they beat and killed him for allegedly whistling at a white woman in a rural Mississippi grocery store.

His body was later found in the Tallahatchie River.

When police then questioned the brothers, they admitted to kidnapping Till, but claimed they released him unharmed.

One month later, they went on trial for murder, but an all-white jury acquitted them.

It was only months later that the brothers admitted in Look magazine that they had beaten and killed Till, but authorities were unable to prosecute the brothers again because of double jeopardy.

Emmett Till was beaten and lynched in rural Mississippi at the age of 14 in 1955

The barn where he was tortured and killed will now open to the public as a ‘sacred’ memorial site by 2030

That magazine article, though, also concealed the existence of the barn where the heinous crime was committed because it would implicate others involved in Till’s murder, some of whom worked there, according to Dave Tell, author of ‘Remembering Emmett Till.’

He told Mississippi Today the barn was ‘written out of history by the very men who committed the crime there – erased from public memory as part of a broader effort to bury the truth and protect white perpetrators.

‘Preserving it now is an intentional act of restoration,’ Tell declared.

For Keith Beauchamp, producer of the film ‘Till’ and director-producer of ‘The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,’ the barn’s preservation brings mixed emotions.

‘On one hand, it’s significant that a physical site connected to Emmett Till’s story will be preserved for future generations,’ he said. ‘On the other hand, it’s also a place that represents deep pain and injustice.’

‘Regardless, it is a part of American history that must be acknowledged rather than forgotten, because remembering helps us understand and avoid repeating past mistakes.’

Beauchamp went on to thank Rhimes for her ‘generous gift to help preserve this history, especially during a time of debate over how our past should be remembered.’

He also praised Jeff Andrews, who bought the property that included the barn in 1994, for his care ‘maintaining the barn and welcoming the public’ and keeping the site ‘meaningful long before any official preservation began.’

After learning its significance, Andrews began to let Till’s surviving family and others spend time at the site.

Television producer Shonda Rhimes donated $1.5 million to help the Emmett Till Interpretive Center purchase the barn. She is pictured here at 92NY in October

Executives at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center wrote in an open letter on Monday that they were motivated to restore places of significance to the Emmett Till trial, which gained international attention, after a group of Tallahatchie County citizens publicly apologized outside the courthouse where Till’s killers walked free in 2007.

‘That act of honesty became a moral compass for our work,’ the open letter read. ‘Since then, we have restored the courthouse where justice failed, commemorated the riverbank where Emmett’s body was found and replaced the signs that hatred tried to destroy.

‘Every project has carried the same conviction: a nation does not grow stronger by forgetting; it grows stronger by telling the truth.

‘The barn is the next chapter in that conviction.’

Under the Interpretive Center’s plans for the barn, it will become a memorial by the 75th anniversary of Till’s lynching in 2030.

‘We did not save this place to dwell in grief,’ executives wrote in the open letter. ‘We saved it so that truth could keep shaping us.’

They added that the barn ‘will exist in three tenses at once.

‘In the past, it bears witness to what was done. In the present, it calls us to clarity and conscience. In the future, it will be a gathering place – a classroom for democracy, a space where art and dialogue and moral imagination help us practice repair.’

For Keith Beauchamp, producer of the film ‘Till’ and director-producer of ‘The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,’ the barn’s preservation brings mixed emotions

Executive Director Patrick Weems said he hopes opening the barn to the public will encourage people to ask questions about a dark chapter in American history

The center’s Executive Director Patrick Weems said he hopes opening the barn to the public will encourage people to ask questions about a dark chapter in American history.

‘Have we done enough? Is there justice yet? Has our society moved in the direction of human rights so that this sort of thing never happens?’ Weems said.

The center will have the barn under 24-hour surveillance, and the property will be equipped with floodlights and security cameras, Weems said, calling those measures precautionary.

A historical marker, erected where Till’s body was discovered, has been replaced three times after being vandalized.

The first marker was stolen and thrown into the river in 2008. The second was shot more than 100 times by 2014. It was replaced in 2018, and shot another 35 times.

Now the marker is the only bulletproof historical marker in the country, according to Weems.

He noted that Sunday, the day the barn was purchased, was the birthday of Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.

Till’s mother was a civil rights activist who famously insisted on an open casket at her young son’s funeral so the public could see what had been done to him.

‘The barn carries her same charge: to help the world see,’ the open letter states.

‘The barn is more than history – it is a reminder of what democracy requires of each of us: honesty, courage and the willingness to remember together.’