Carolyn Bryant Donham is a woman whose name is forever linked to one of the most heinous crimes in American history: the murder of Emmett Till. In 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till, a Black teenager from Chicago, was brutally beaten and murdered by two white men while visiting family in Mississippi. The men were acquitted by an all-white jury, but years later, it was revealed that Carolyn Bryant Donham, a white woman who was working at a grocery store at the time, had made false accusations against Till, claiming he had made advances toward her.
The false accusations made by Carolyn Bryant Donham had a devastating impact on Emmett Till and his family. Till was abducted from his uncle’s house in the middle of the night, brutally beaten, shot, and his body was dumped in a nearby river. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted on an open casket funeral so that the world could see what had been done to her son. The images of Till’s mutilated body shocked the nation and became a catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.
In 2008, Carolyn Bryant Donham’s role in Till’s murder was finally exposed. In an interview with Timothy Tyson, author of “The Blood of Emmett Till,” Donham admitted that she had lied about Till’s actions. She claimed that he had never made any physical or verbal advances toward her, and that her accusations were purely a product of the racism and fear that permeated the Jim Crow South.
Donham’s confession did not bring justice for Emmett Till, who had already lost his life, but it did provide a measure of closure for his family. Mamie Till-Mobley had passed away years earlier, but Till’s cousin, Deborah Watts, said that Donham’s admission gave her a sense of peace.
Carolyn Bryant Donham, who accused 14-year-old Emmett Till of whistling at her and making sexual advances, leading to Till’s kidnapping and lynching, has died, according to the Calcasieu Parish Coroner’s Office in Louisiana.
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