The House unanimously passed a bill Wednesday to posthumously award the Congressional Gold Medal to Emmett Till, the Chicago teenager murdered by white supremacists in the 1950s, and his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley.
The bill, which passed the Senate in January, is meant to honor Till and his mother - who had insisted on an open casket funeral to demonstrate the brutality of his killing - with the highest civilian honor that Congress awards. The medal will be given to the National Museum of African American History where it will be displayed near the casket Till was buried in.
