Obfuscation, the Rhetoric of Martyrdom, and the Emmett Till Statue in Greenwood, Mississippi

Abstract

This article introduces the concept of obfuscation as a useful category for public memory scholarship that expands our understanding of the memory building practices associated with memorials to lynching victims. Using the Emmett Till Statue installed in Greenwood, Mississippi, in 2022 as its exemplar artifact, the article shows how its placement and form offer a comforting narrative of sacrifice and martyrdom that obfuscates the traumatic reality that Till was a victim whose short life ended when two white men lynched him.