Later, when asked why she refused to go to the back of the bus, Parks said she was thinking of Emmett Till. The Emmett Till Memorial Center sits on 76th Avenue, which has the honorary name of Emmett Till Avenue. The law was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson a decade after Emmett Till’s murder. One wonders what Emmett Till today, with the benefit of 85 years of life experience, would have thought about his country. Today is Emmett Till’s birthday.