Guest Curator: Sarah Elizabeth Lewis, in collaboration with Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr.

What if Emmett Till lived?

If Emmett Till Lived: Freedom on American Ground is an exhibition born from a collaboration between guest curator Sarah Elizabeth Lewis and Reverend Wheeler Parker, Jr., Emmett Till’s cousin, best friend, and the last surviving witness to his kidnapping. Marking what would have been Till’s 85th birthday, the exhibition asks: What might his life have been had he safely boarded the train back home to Chicago? What would that life have required of us all? And more than 70 years after his murder, have we made good on the sacrifice of his life?

Drawing from the Museum of Contemporary Photography’s permanent collection, the exhibition brings together photographs by more than 110 artists, including Dawoud Bey, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Dorothea Lange, Gordon Parks, Carrie Mae Weems, Hank Willis Thomas, and Lance Omar Thurman, Till’s cousin. Together, the works invite viewers to imagine and meditate on the decades Till never had the opportunity to live.

Conceived as a creative monument to Till’s unlived life and continuing legacy, the project also brings together civic and cultural leaders who were invited to select photographs representing their hopes for the life Till might have lived. Contributors include members of the Till family alongside artists, writers, scholars, activists, and cultural leaders from across the country.

At a moment when American history is being fiercely contested, If Emmett Till Lived considers how photography can create a space for remembrance, imagination, and collective reflection while asking a question that remains urgent today: How has freedom been, and how can it be, secured on American ground?