Contact: Will Jones
Marketing and Communications Manager
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
National Underground Railroad Freedom Center to Host
Freedom 55: Remembering Emmett Till
Discussion with Filmmaker Keith Beauchamp
Discussion Launches Year-Long Commemoration of the
55th Anniversary of Freedom Summer
CINCINNATI, OH (January 25, 2019) – The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will host the discussion, Freedom 55: Remembering Emmett Till on Thursday, February 21 at 6:00 p.m. with award-winning filmmaker Keith A. Beauchamp. The discussion launches the museum’s Freedom 55 campaign that includes a series of screenings, book signings, lectures and musical performances throughout 2019 commemorating the 55th anniversary of Freedom Summer. The program is free and open to the public. RSVPs are required.
Excerpts from the film The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till produced and directed by Beauchamp will be shown throughout the discussion. The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till revisits the public outrage that follows Till’s kidnapping and brutal murder while revealing Till's family as being particularly brave for standing up to racism in the Deep South. Full screenings of The Untold Story of Emmett Till will be held Sundays, February 17 and February 24 at 3:00 p.m. in the Harriet Tubman Theater and is free with general admission.
Beauchamp’s work includes TV One’s Murder in Black and White, Wanted Justice: Johnnie Mae Chappell on the History Channel and Investigation Discovery’s crime reality series, The Injustice Files. Beauchamp has been featured on 60 Minutes, ABC World News Tonight, MSNBC, Good Morning America and many publications such as The New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today and the Chicago Sun Times.
“The murder and mutilation of Emmett Till was the impetus expressed by many veterans of the Civil Rights Movement as to why they became active,” says Jacqueline Dace, deputy director at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. “In sharing his perspective about Till’s death, guests will have a better understanding of how and why it inspired many to participate in the Freedom Summer movement.”
Freedom 55: Remembering Emmett Till is the first of a series of discussions commemorating the 55th anniversary of Freedom Summer, a 1964 voter registration drive, also known as the Mississippi Summer project. The goal was to end the prevailing discriminatory and segregated voting system through increased voter registration of African Americans. In preparation, hundreds of student volunteers gathered for two, one-week orientation sessions from June 14 to June 27, 1964 at Western College for Women (present day Miami University) in Oxford, OH.
The Freedom 55: Remembering Emmett Till discussion is Thursday, February 21 at 6:00 p.m. at the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. This program is free and open to the public. RSVPs are required. For more information and to RSVP, visit freedomcenter.org.
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About National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
The National Underground Railroad Freedom Center opened in August 2004 on the banks of the Ohio River in downtown Cincinnati, Ohio. Since then, more than 1.3 million people have visited its permanent and changing exhibits and public programs, inspiring everyone to take courageous steps for freedom. Two million people have utilized educational resources online at
freedomcenter.org, working to connect the lessons of the Underground Railroad to inform and inspire today’s global and local fight for freedom. Partnerships include Historians Against Slavery, Polaris Project, Free the Slaves, US Department of State and International Justice Mission. In 2014, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center launched a new online resource in the fight against modern slavery,
endslaverynow.org.