TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV) – Florida State University’s Emmett Till ties run deep.
The 15-year-old lynched in Mississippi in 1955 is still a guiding presence in modern-day conversations about freedom and civil rights, and Tallahassee is a key epicenter in how that conversation evolves. The Emmett Till Archive at FSU remains the nation’s largest resource for Till-related research.
That’s why FSU holds the Emmett Till lecture series, a free public conversation about Till’s legacy.
Two key voices in this contemporary dialogue made the trek from Mississippi Thursday to speak with FSU students in class before addressing the public later that evening.
Patrick Weems is the Executive Director at the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner, Mississippi.
“Any opportunity that we can come alongside and partner with historians, archivists who are helping save this story is a way for us to propel our work to do what Mamie Till said and let the world see,” he said.
Mamie Till was Emmett’s mother. After his lynching, she made it her mission the world would know her son’s fate.
Historian, activist hold lecture at FSU on preserving Emmett Till’s history(Jacob Murphey/WCTV)
Weems continues that mission, working to educate the masses about Till’s story.
“For our community, it was 50 years of silence that we didn’t talk about Emmett Till,” he said.
The other speaker is Gloria Dickerson, a civil rights activist who inspires children in her hometown of Drew, Mississippi.
“Who really knew what the Civil Rights Movement was all about?,” she asked.
“Just hearing about Emmett Till and knowing that a lot of the people weren’t aware who lived right there inspired me to come back and start teaching and making people more aware of what was going on and what had gone on in their community,” Dickerson said.
Last year, WCTV talked with Dickerson as the FSU-linked Mississippi Delta Film Academy helped local high school students learn the art of the documentary to capture Dickerson’s own story of struggle and civil rights.
Thursday’s discussion explored ongoing efforts to preserve sites connected to Till’s history.
To keep up with the latest news as it develops, follow WCTV on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Nextdoor and X (Twitter).
Have a news tip or see an error? Write to us here. Please include the article’s headline in your message.
Be the first to see all the biggest headlines by downloading the WCTV News app. Click here to get started.
Copyright 2026 WCTV. All rights reserved.