Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose accusations led to the brutal murder of Black teen has died. She was 88.
Donham died Tuesday in Westlake, Louisiana, according to a fact of death letter from the Calcasieu Parish coroner obtained by CNN.
In August 1955, 14-year old Emmett Till was beaten and shot to death after he allegedly whistled at Bryant (Donham) – in Mississippi.
Later, her husband, Roy Bryant, and J.W. Milam, took Emmett from his bed and ordered him into the back of a pickup truck and beat him before shooting him in the head and tossing his body into the Tallahatchie River. They were both acquitted of murder by an all-White jury following a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett grabbed and verbally threatened her.
The two White men, who have been dead for years, admitted to the killing in a 1956 interview with Look magazine.
In 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict Donham on any charges.
Donham testified in 1955 that Emmett grabbed her hand and waist and propositioned her, saying he had been with “White women before.” But years later, when professor Timothy Tyson raised that trial testimony in a 2008 interview with Donham, he claimed she told him, “That part’s not true.”
The interview was included in Tyson’s book, “The Blood of Emmett Till.”
After hearing that Donham recanted her testimony, the US Justice Department said in a memo that would contradict statements she made during the state trial in 1955 and later to the FBI. This prompted calls for authorities to reopen the investigation.
The DOJ, which had already re-examined and closed the case in 2007, reopened the probe into Emmett’s killing in 2018. But the case was closed in December 2021 after the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division concluded it could not prove Donham had lied. When questioned directly, Donham adamantly denied to investigators that she had recanted her testimony.
In August 2022, a Leflore County, Mississippi, grand jury declined to indict Donham, deciding there was insufficient evidence to indict her on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter, according to a statement from District Attorney Dewayne Richardson.
Donham was the last surviving person who could have been held accountable for Till’s death.
Malik Shabazz, with Black Lawyers for Justice, said in a statement Thursday that Donham’s legacy “will be one of dishonesty and injustice.”
“Carolyn Bryant’s death brings a conclusion to a painful chapter for the Emmett Till family and for Black peoples 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,” the statement reads.
The Rev. Wheeler Parker Jr., Emmett’s cousin and the last living witness to the abduction, told CNN Thursday after Donham’s death: “Our hearts go out to the family of Carolyn Bryant Donham. As a person of faith for more than 60 years, I recognize that any loss of life is tragic and don’t have any ill will or animosity toward her.”
“Even though no one now will be held to account for the death of my cousin and best friend, it is up to all of us to be accountable to the challenges we still face in overcoming racial injustice,” he said.
A feature film, entitled “Till,” debut in theaters January 2023. The movie focused on Emmett’s mother Mamie Till-Mobley and her search to receive justice for her son.
On April 29, Argo Community High School in Summit is unveiling a statue honoring Mamie Till-Mobley. Argo is Till-Mobley’s alma mater. She was an honor student who had a successful teaching career. Because she insisted her son’s funeral was an open casket, she also became a key figure in the Civil Rights movement.
President Joe Biden signed an anti-lynching bill named after Emmett Till in 2022. It officially made lynching a federal hate crime, 67 years after Till’s death.
Although Emmett wasn’t able to get the justice he deserved, his story continues to be a staple in the civil rights movement and social justice cases today.
Rest in peace, Emmett.
