Drew, Mississippi - The Mississippi barn where Emmett Till was tortured and murdered will opened as part of a public memorial by the 75th anniversary of the lynching in 2030.

"Through the generosity of writer and producer Shonda Rhimes and the resolve of local residents, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center has purchased and protected the barn," the organization announced in an open letter.

"It will be preserved not merely as a structure, but as sacred ground – a place where truth can live without fear of being forgotten."

The barn outside Drew, Mississippi, was purchased on November 23 – the birthday of Till's late mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, whose decision to hold an open-casket funeral for her son proved a decisive moment in the struggle for Black civil and human rights.

Migration Trump administration blocked from ramping up rapid deportations by appeals court

A resident of Chicago, Till was 14 years old when he was lynched while visiting relatives in Mississippi.

A white woman named Carolyn Bryant Donham accused Till of whistling at her in her family's grocery store in 1955. Her husband, Roy Bryant, and half-brother, J.W. Milam, then kidnapped the teen, brutally beat him, and shot him before throwing his body into a river.

Bryant and Milam, both of whom have since passed away, were acquitted by an all-white jury before confessing to the crime in a 1956 interview.

A 2021 Department of Justice report said there had likely been other participants in Till's abduction and murder.

Historian Timothy Tyson, author of the 2017 book The Blood of Emmett Till, said Donham admitted in a 2008 interview to having lied in her trial testimony about the teen grabbing and making sexual advances at her. The allegation prompted the DOJ to reopen investigations into the case, but it was ultimately closed after Tyson was unable to provide any recording or transcript of the confession to the FBI.

Donham – who denied recanting her testimony – died at the age of 88 in April 2023.

"Emmett Till’s life was sacred. It is sacred still. And our work to protect this place – to teach, to convene, to create – is our collective answer: we hear him," the Emmett Till Interpretive Center said.