Woman whose accusation led to the lynching of Emmett Till has died at 88, coroner says
Last edited Thu Apr 27, 2023, 02:34 PM - Edit history (2)
Source: CNN
CNN — Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman whose accusation led to the 1955 lynching of Black teen Emmett Till in Mississippi – and whose role in the brutal death was reconsidered by a grand jury as recently as last year – has died in Louisiana, the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office confirmed to CNN. Donham, 88, died Tuesday in Westlake, according to a fact of death letter from the coroner.
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.
In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett was beaten and shot to death after he allegedly whistled at Bryant – now Donham – in Money, 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. Milam, who died in 1980, and Bryant, who died in 1994, 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.”
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2023/04/27/us/carolyn-bryant-donham-emmett-till/index.html
Article updated.
Previous article -
Donham, 88, died Tuesday in Westlake, according to a fact of death letter from the Calcasieu Parish Coroner. CNN has reached out to the Till family.
In August 1955, 14-year-old Till was beaten and shot to death after he allegedly whistled at Bryant - now Donham - in Money, Mississippi.Later, her husband, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, took Till 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 following a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett grabbed and verbally threatened her. In 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict Donham on any charges.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
Original article -
Donham, 88, died on April 25 in Westlake, Louisiana, a fact of death letter from the coroner's office obtained by CNN says.
CNN has reached out to the Till family.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
= new reply since forum marked as read
I enjoyed the adventures of Homer, a reluctant soul, the Wiley cartoon from Non Sequitur. The set up was Homer keeps cycling through various life incarnations. Before being reembodied, Homer goes through a last-life lessons debriefing.
hope you are well!in the state that has been showing out! 
That's all I'll say......
on edit: I hope she ends up here:
...very well put.
