'Racism cut so many lives short': Relative of civil rights martyr Till dedicates Riviera memorial

RIVIERA BEACH — The oldest living relative of Emmett Till, the Black teenager whose lynching in 1955 galvanized the civil rights movement, helped commemorate her cousin Sunday alongside the names of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Corey Jones and other Black people killed by police or civilians.

A couple dozen people gathered at 1:30 p.m. in the parking lot of New Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church at 748 W. Ninth St., one block north of Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard, to honor Till with the unveiling of a red parking bumper bearing his name.

Local politicos and other distinguished residents spoke to the crowd — most attendees wore church suits and dresses — as the temperature soared past 90 degrees. The hourlong event, featuring a rap performance and the Black national anthem, "Lift Every Voice And Sing," was capped by remarks from Till's second cousin, Thelma Wright Edwards, who is 91. She sat in the air-conditioned church, masked, and came out when it was her turn to speak.

Editorial: Riviera Beach has big decision: new homes vs. beloved affordable golf course

Reflections on Juneteenth: Black civil rights and the influence of fatherhood

Edwards told the crowd about her memories from when Till was born in 1941 in Chicago. Her aunt had brought her the news, so she brought diapers to Till's mother.

“Racism cut so many lives short," Edwards said in an interview. "But we must keep fighting so that their deaths were not in vain.”

West Palm Beach resident Rosa Harris, 75, spoke about growing up in segregated Palm Beach County. Her mom did domestic work for white people, she said. Harris told the audience about one of her first tastes of racism at age 7, when she was downtown with her mother.

“I remember being on Clematis (Street) and I wanted to go in the restaurant to eat a hot dog," Harris said. "I saw the Black people serving the hot dogs. I said ‘Mama, I want a hot dog.’ She said to me, ‘No, we can get one at home!’“

Elected officials who spoke included Democratic state Rep. Jervonte Edmonds and former Broward County Commissioner Dale Holness, who is running for Congress against fellow Democratic U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick.

“Black people are still being brutalized by police and by others,” Holness said. “It’s no lynching but it’s close to that.” He cited statistics and studies that he said show how the law and its enforcers treat Blacks worse than whites.

Edmonds cited the mass shooting committed May 14 at Buffalo, N.Y., grocery store by a white supremacist who killed 10 Black people.

“These kinds of attacks are just going to keep getting worse unless we put our foot down now," he said in an interview.

He emphasized that idea was about protecting all minorities, including Hispanic people, Jews and those with disabilities, who have been targets of terror attacks across the nation in recent years.

Other speakers included Bishop Thomas Masters, a former mayor of Riviera Beach; current Mayor Ronnie Felder; and Democratic state Sen. Bobby Powell. Riviera City Council member Julie Botel attended but did not speak.

Paul Labbe — rap name Lil Zoe Labbe — sang about mistreatment of Black people, referencing killings where police or civilians fatally shot those who had acted lawfully during deadly encounters with those who took their lives.

Till was visiting relatives in Money, Miss., in August 1955 when he was accused of making lecherous advances on a white woman in a grocery store. Two white men abducted the 14-year-old from his cousin's house, then tortured and shot him, throwing his body in a river.

His body surfaced days later. The photos of his mutlitated corpse in his open casket led to widespread outrage, becoming one of the galvanizing events of the civil rights movement.

This past March, President Biden signed into law the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which makes lynching a federal hate crime.

The Emmett Till parking space bumper at New Macedonia sits alongside others bearing the names of Black people killed by police or civilians.

They include Stanley Davis III, a 13-year-old Boynton Beach boy who died Dec. 26 after being chased by city police officer Mark Sohn. A Florida Highway Patrol report cleared Sohn, but Davis's family want him charged with murder.

Corey Jones is another Palm Beach County victim commemorated on a New Macedonia parking bumper. On Oct. 18, 2015, Palm Beach Gardens officer Nouman Raja killed the 31-year-old church drummer, who had been stranded on the side of Interstate 95 when Raja pulled up to him in an unmarked car Raja was convicted of manslaughter and homicide in 2019 and to 25 years in prison.

Harris, the West Palm Beach resident, said after the Till commemoration that it was important to remember the names of victims, fearing that schools would not teach the history and legacy of racism, and lamenting that young Black people might forget or stop caring.

"They need to know their history, know where they came from," she said.

Less than a mile east of New Macedonia, at the Riviera Beach Marina Village, nonprofit group Juneteenth of PBC aimed to do that. It hosted its second annual Juneteenth festival that afternoon, raising money that its organizers said would be spent in part on teaching Black history.

The event attracted at least 2,500 people and 40 vendors, and has raised at least $20,000, nonprofit cofounder Sukeenah Kelly said. Those figures exceeded last year's inaugural festival. The group says it will host events next year that include teaching Black history.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Riviera honors civil rights martyr Emmett Till with name memorial