Preservation Snapshots is one of Landmarks Illinois’ longest running educational programs. Since 2001, the series has provided nearly 200 lectures on diverse preservation-related topics to our members and the public. Guest speakers have included architects, historians, preservation professionals, planners, authors and architectural historians. Landmarks Illinois has partnered with venues such as Chicago Cultural Center, the Auditorium Theatre and AIA Chicago to bring over 8,000 attendees the opportunity to learn about Illinois’ remarkable past and the community benefits of historic preservation and adaptive reuse, and to be inspired to take action in their own communities.
Preservation Snapshots Lectures
Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ
WHEN
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
12:00 – 1:00 p.m.
WHERE
Virtual webinar over Zoom
REGISTRATION
Free for Landmarks Illinois Members
$5 for non-Landmarks Illinois members
Registration is required. Guests will receive a custom link to join the presentation closer to the event date.
DESCRIPTION
It was September 3, 1955, when the visitation for Emmett Till opened to the public. Over 50,000 people stood in line over three days at Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ on Chicago’s South Side to see his body. The Great Migration was still underway, and those at the visitation were most likely from the South themselves or were born of Southern parents.
Jet Magazine carried images of Emmett across the country. The Chicago Defender newspaper, which urged blacks to come north to escape the Jim Crow south, ran a series of stories describing Mississippi’s elected officials as having “blood on their hands.” Mamie Till-Mobley had been anxiously awaiting news that her son was found alive after white men took him from the Mississippi home of his great uncle in August 1955. The Defender captured her meeting Emmett’s casket instead.
Emmett’s nickname was Bo, and he had a babysitter named Iberia Hampton. Mrs. Hampton’s youngest child, Fred, had just turned seven a week before Bo’s funeral, and she could not bring herself to go.
Mamie Till-Mobley wanted the world to see what happened to her son; her decision made Emmett a martyr of the Civil Rights Movement and pivotal in American history.
Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ at 4021 S. State Street became a Chicago Landmark in 2005. In 2023, President Joe Biden established the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument. This multi-state monument contains sites in Illinois and Mississippi: Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ, the Tallahatchie County Courthouse and Graball Landing at the foot of the Tallahatchie River where Emmett’s body was found.
Please join us for a special Preservation Snapshots Lecture on Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in partnership with the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley Institute and the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.
Our guest presenters are Tiffany Tolbert, Associate Director, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, National Trust for Historic Preservation; Dr. Marvel Parker, Executive Director of the Emmett Till and Mamie Till Mobley Institute; and Brandon Bibby, Senior Preservation Architect, African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, National Trust for Historic Preservation.
(Photo credit: ST-17600005-E1, Chicago Sun-Times collection, Chicago History Museum)
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Past Lectures
Visit us on YouTube to watch past Preservation Snapshots Lectures!
Past Preservation Snapshots Lectures
Twentieth Anniversary of the Edith Farnsworth House
April 4, 2024
Architect and former Landmarks Illinois Board Member Antunovich discusses the preservation effort to save the Edith Farnsworth House in Plano. The iconic home is celebrating its 20th year of being open to the public.
Watch the lecture
The Underground Railroad and Freedom Seeking in the 19th Century, The Law Versus Morality
March 7, 2024
Author and professor Gerald McWorter discusses the history and significance of New Philadelphia, Illinois.
Watch the lecture
Ten Years Later: The Impact of School Closings in Chicago
November 16, 2023
A discussion featuring Paola Aguirre, Urban Designer and Partner of Borderless Studio, which launched the Creative Grounds Initiative that works to activate closed CPS schools including Overton Elementary.
Watch the lecture
Gillson Park and Wilmette Harbor, A Fascinating and Remarkably Intact Historic Landscape
November 2, 2023
A captivating presentation featuring Julia Bachrach, landscape historian, and Malcolm Cairns, FASLA, a retired Ball State University professor, who prepared the Gillson Park nomination for the National Register of Historic Places.
Watch the lecture
Dr. Percy Julian, an American story that is home to Oak Park
July 19, 2023
Learn about the life and legacy of Dr. Percy Julian, a renowned chemist who synthesized important medicinal compounds from plant sources. His former historic Oak Park home is also in need of preservation.
Watch the lecture
Brooklyn, IL, One of the Last Remaining Freedom Towns in America
June 21, 2023
Landmarks Illinois Programs Manager Leila Wills is joined by Landmarks Illinois Regional Advocacy Manager Quinn Adamowski and the Historical Society of Brooklyn, Illinois’ Robert White, III, for an in-depth discussion on the historic town of Brooklyn, Illinois.
Chicago's Hip Hop Heritage
May 18, 2023
Landmarks Illinois Program Manager Leila Wills joins Brian Gorman, one of the co-founders of the Chicago Hip Hop Heritage Museum, to talk about the city’s impact on hip hop music, celebrating its 50th Anniversary in 2023.
PRESERVATION SNAPSHOTS LECTURE: Economic Development in Illinois’ Commercial Corridors – a Panel Discussion
Landmarks Illinois’ preservation programs are helping people revitalize their historic storefronts, sparking welcomed economic development in our state’s commercial corridors. This panel discussion on November 17, 2022, featured recipients of a Landmarks Illinois loan, grant and preservation award sharing first-hand accounts of restoring commercial spaces inside historic buildings.
SPEAKERS
- Nedra Sims Fears, Executive Director Greater Chatham Initiative, Chicago – Recipient of 2022 Landmarks Illinois Reinvestment Loan
- Stowe Olesen, General Manager Broadgauge, Petersburg – Recipient of a 2022 Landmarks Illinois Richard H. Driehaus Foundation Preservation Award
- Moderated by Suzanne Germann, Landmarks Illinois Director of Reinvestment
Click below to watch the lecture.
Watch the lecture
Preservation Snapshots Lecture: Recent Past Survey of Suburban Cook County
October 20, 2022
Lisa DiChiera, former Landmarks Illinois Director of Advocacy; Charlie Pipal, Adjunct Professor, Historic Preservation Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago; and Sheila Webb, Graduate SAIC Historic Preservation at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, look back at the Recent Past Survey of Suburban Cook County. this 16-year surveying effort of non-residential suburban Chicago buildings dating from 1935 to 1975 — a period commonly referred to as the “Recent Past.” Approximately 4,100 commercial, institutional, office and religious structures have been identified in more than 53 suburban communities throughout Cook County, Illinois. The survey was undertaken in coordination with Landmarks Illinois by the School of the Art Institute of Chicago’s (SAIC) Graduate Program in Historic Preservation since 2006.
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