Woman Whose Accusation Led to the Murder of Emmett Till Dies at 88
The white woman whose accusation led to the murder of a young, Black, boy in 1955 has died. Carolyn Bryant Donham died on Tuesday in Louisiana at the age of 88, as confirmed by the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office to…
The white woman whose accusation led to the murder of a young, Black, boy in 1955 has died.
Carolyn Bryant Donham died on Tuesday in Louisiana at the age of 88, as confirmed by the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office to CNN.
Malik Shabazz, with Black Lawyers for Justice, gave a statement following Donham’s passing.
“Carolyn Bryant’s death brings a conclusion to a painful chapter for the Emmett Till family and for Black peoples (sic) in America. The tragic part about Bryant’s death was that she was never held accountable for her role in the death of young Emmett Till, who is the martyr for the Civil Rights Movement,” he said.
In 1955, Donham accused 14-year-old Till of whistling at her inside a grocery store in Mississippi, according to History.
Four days later, Donham’s then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, kidnapped Till while he was sleeping in his uncle’s home.
The brothers then brutally beat him and mutilated him. After shooting Till in the head, they “tied him with barbed wire to a large metal fan” and proceeded to push his body into the Tallahatchie River.
Till’s mutilated body was shipped to Chicago where he had an open-casket funeral at the request of his mother as evidence for the hate Crime.
The gruesome photo of Till’s body was featured on the cover of the Black publication, Jet Magazine, which sparked immense outrage.