Description: When Mamie Till-Mobley joined an NAACP-sponsored national speaking tour after the death of Emmett Till in the fall of 1955, she was determined to teach. She instructed audiences about who her son was, how she mothered him, and how his story was connected to a larger history of racism, violence, and justice in the United States. This talk traces the pedagogical performances of Till-Mobley—from her time on the NAACP speaking tour to her experiences as a Chicago schoolteacher and playwright—and insists that Till-Mobley was a fervent believer of two things: teaching others and promoting educational initiatives to make sure her son’s name remained culturally relevant.

Speaker Bio: Dr. Brandon M. Erby is an Assistant Professor of Writing, Rhetoric, and Digital Studies and an affiliated faculty member in African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. He received his B.A. in English from Tougaloo College, M.A. in English from Seton Hall University, and Ph.D. in English and African American and Diaspora Studies from Pennsylvania State University. His research areas include African American rhetoric, literacy and language studies, critical pedagogy, and rhetorical history. Dr. Erby teaches courses on writing, current events, social movements, visual rhetoric, and Emmett Till, and his scholarly work appears or is forthcoming in academic venues such as Rhetoric Review, Open Words: Access and English Studies, Journal for the History of Rhetoric, The Conversation, and College Composition and Communication. He is currently writing a book about the activism, pedagogy, and legacy of Mamie Till-Mobley.