Landmark status urged for Till site

November 20, 2005

BY DON BABWIN - Chicago Sun-Times

It was the site of a seminal event in the civil rights movement, where a photograph was taken that gave the country a glimpse of the horrors of racism.

Today, a half century after mourners filed into Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ and past the open casket of a brutally beaten 14-year-old boy named Emmett Till, there is hope the church will become to this chapter in American history what places like Gettysburg are to the Civil War.

''This is part of the civil rights trail,'' said Jonathan Fine, president of Preservation Chicago, which is pushing for the city to give the church landmark status. ''The civil rights trail begins in Chicago, and it began in this church.''

More civil rights sites listed

It was here that Mamie Till Mobley decided to make what historians and activists say was one of the most significant statements about civil rights. After her son's body was brought back to Chicago from Mississippi where he was murdered, allegedly for whistling at a white woman, Mobley insisted the casket remain open. She wanted the nation -- the tens of thousands who descended on the church to pay their respects and the millions who saw the photographs in Jet magazine -- to see firsthand the brutality directed at blacks in the South.

Across the nation, more and more houses, churches, hotels and other structures bound together by the struggle for equality are being designated as landmarks, listed on the National Register of Historic Places and turned into museums.

Just this year:

*In Alabama, 15 churches where civil rights activities took place were listed on the historic register.

*In New York, the Hotel Theresa, where black entertainers stayed when most hotels turned them away, was placed on the register.

*In Greensboro, N.C., the International Civil Rights Center and Museum is being built where four North Carolina A&T State University students sat down at a segregated lunch counter on Feb. 1, 1960.

''There has been a push in the last few years,'' said Alexis Abernathy, a National Register of Historic Places historian.

One reason is that 50 years have passed since the events that made such sites famous. That milestone makes simpler the process of inclusion on the National Register.

''Enough time has passed to put a historical perspective on these events,'' Abernathy said.

Another reason is that sites associated with the civil rights movement are becoming popular with tourists. Communities have begun to advertise their place in the civil rights movement.

History lesson

Places like the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, in the Lorraine Motel where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot in 1968, and Atlanta's Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Site are major attractions that bring in millions of dollars.

''There is a national focus on these communities and the history of civil rights in these communities,'' said Harold Lucas, the president of the Black Metropolis Convention and Tourism Council in Chicago. Just last month, he gave a tour to about a dozen foreign journalists of sites in Chicago associated with the civil rights movement.

But Chicago has lacked a well-known landmark from the civil rights movement. After federal prosecutors reopened the investigation into Till's death last year, the Roberts Temple was thrust back into public consciousness.

Those pushing to give it landmark status -- likely to come before the City Council early next year -- hope the designation will attract tourists.

Roberts Temple pastor Cleven Wardlow Jr. said tourism dollars could start to flow if the church is listed. ''If it's on the national register, you can't help but become a tourist attraction when people visit the city,'' he said.

AP