Emmit's southern relatives urged his mother to have his services in the south, as to avoid a media circus. But Mrs. Till refused to allow her son to be buried on the land that allowed his killers to go free. She arranged to have his body shipped back to Chicago.

At his funeral, which was attended by thousands of people, she insisted that the casket be left open. Despite the appearance of Emmit's body, which was badly beaten and barely recognizable, she reasoned that she wanted to world to see what "those animals that call themsleves men" had done to her child.