Chicago Landmarks
 

Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ Building

Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley     Address: 4021 S. State St.
Year Built: 1922 - 1927
Architect:
Date Designated a Chicago Landmark: March 29, 2006

Roberts Temple interior, by Terry Tatum, CCL, 2005 This church building was the location in early September 1955 of the open-casket visitation and funeral for Emmett Till, an African-American teenager from Chicago who was murdered while visiting relatives in Mississippi. His brutal, racially-motivated killing was a catalytic moment in the modern civil-rights movement, drawing thousands of mourners to the visitation and funeral and horrifying countless others who saw photographs of his badly-mutilated body in African-American publications such as Jet magazine.