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The Loyola University Chicago community gathered on October 21, 2022, to celebrate the formal launch of the Black Alumni Board’s Mamie Till-Mobley Scholarship and the official naming of Mamie Till-Mobley Day in Chicago and Illinois. Sponsored by Loyola’s Black Alumni Board, the scholarship is part of a rising tide of actions at Loyola to counter past inequities in college access and resources.
“The goal of the Mamie Till-Mobley Scholarship is to increase the enrollment of students from the Chicagoland area and to help the community see how a single selfless act amid tremendous personal pain can transform an individual and a movement,” says Karen Fleshman, MBA‘99, President, Black Alumni Board. “Mamie’s courage illuminated the racism and injustice in our society that we are still working to address today.”
To commemorate the countless contributions Mamie Till-Mobley made to the Black youth in Chicago and world, recipients of this scholarship will be notable graduates of a Chicagoland high school and have an affiliation with the Black or African American community through leadership and community service.
“This scholarship will serve as permanent recognition of Mamie Till-Mobley’s connection to Loyola and a fitting remembrance of her role as a spokesperson for justice,” says Dominique Jordan Turner, Vice President, Institutional Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Loyola. “Mamie Till-Mobley’s legacy is reflective of the Black excellence that permeates throughout the Loyola community. Generations of Loyola students will be called to emulate her courage, wisdom, creativity, and resolute determination.”
Some people experience a singular moment that sets the trajectory for the person they will become. For Mamie Till-Mobley, that moment came September 3, 1955, when she demanded that the casket holding the body of only child, Emmett Louis Till, be opened “to let the world see.”
Multiple documentaries, museum exhibits, and now a major motion picture tell the story of how 14-year-old Emmet was kidnapped, lynched, brutally tortured, and murdered and how his grieving mother forced the world to reckon with this evil. Till-Mobley transformed her grief into a mission – dedicating her life to teaching Black children.
Being a lifelong learner, Mamie pursued a master’s degree in education leadership from Loyola University Chicago’s School of Education. In 1971, she earned her MEd, and would continue teaching for another decade until her retirement from Chicago Public Schools in 1983. Mamie integrated Black history part and parcel into her lessons to ensure the history would not be lost. In 1973, Mamie founded the Emmett Till Players youth drama troupe. This young ensemble would perform for community groups and churches reciting famous speeches by Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. After her retirement, she remained a strong educational leader and activist sharing her story throughout the country until her passing in 2003.
“As a Black woman who was born and raised in Mississippi, Mamie Till-Mobley’s fight for justice for her son was in so many ways a fight for me, my parents, grandparents—and for all Black children and families,” says Dr. Markeda Newell, Interim Dean, School of Education. “She was fighting for people she would never know, and that is the very essence of being a person for others. Loyola’s School of Education had the gift of being part of her journey.”
Learn more about the scholarship here.
