If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground is a collaborative initiative developed by Sarah Elizabeth Lewis and Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr., Emmett Till’s cousin, best friend, and the last surviving witness to his kidnapping. The exhibition brings together photographs by more than 110 artists from the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s permanent collection and invites visitors to imagine the life Emmett Till might have lived had he returned safely to Chicago in 1955. Conceived as a creative monument to his unlived life and enduring legacy, the project explores memory, justice, freedom, and the continuing impact of racial violence in America.
Phil Borges, Paternity, 1990. Gelatin silver print. Courtesy: Museum of Contemporary Photography at Columbia College Chicago.