Woman whose accusation led to lynching of Emmett Till admits she lied

Emmett Till was a 14-year-old African-American teenager lynched after a Mississippi woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, claimed he made "advances" on her.

His killers were acquitted of kidnapping and murder by an all-white, all-male jury. Then, free of further legal jeopardy, they admitted to it. Their casual indifference and impunity helped catalyze the civil rights movement. The Emmett Till case highlights the negative aspect of jury nullification.

The Murder Of Emmett Till (The Full Documetary)

Many people believe Emmett Till's murder was a pivotal event motivating the civil rights movement. The Montgomery Bus Boycott took place later that same year in December.

Last week, we learned Donham admitted she lied about Till's actions.

Carolyn Bryant, right, testified at her husband's trial, Roy Bryant, left, that Emmett had grabbed her and been sexually aggressive. Her husband was acquitted of murder after little over an hour's deliberation by an all-white, all-male jury. He later admitted the brutal killing

In a new book, The Blood of Emmett Till (Simon & Schuster), Timothy Tyson, a Duke University senior research scholar, reveals that Carolyn—in 2007, at age 72—confessed that she had fabricated the most sensational part of her testimony. “That part’s not true,” she told Tyson, about her claim that Till had made verbal and physical advances on her. As for the rest of what happened that evening in the country store, she said she couldn’t remember. (Carolyn is now 82, and her current whereabouts have been kept secret by her family.)

Emmett Till, left, was 14 when he was lynched and murdered by Roy Bryant and his half-brother John Milam after allegedly whistling at Bryant's 21-year-old wife Carolyn. Till's mother Mamie Till-Mobley insisted on an open casket for her son's funeral, right, so America could see what had been done to him.

The New York Times adds that "As a matter of narrow justice, it makes little difference; true or not, her claims did not justify any serious penalty, much less death."

… among thousands of lynchings of black people, this one looms large in the country’s tortured racial history, taught in history classes to schoolchildren, and often cited as one of the catalysts for the civil rights movement.

Photographs in Jet Magazine of Emmett’s gruesomely mutilated body — at a funeral that his mother insisted have an open coffin, to show the world what his killers had done — had a galvanizing effect on black America. … The Justice Department began an investigation into the Emmett Till lynching in 2004, Emmett’s body was exhumed for an autopsy, and the F.B.I. rediscovered the long-missing trial transcript. But in 2007, a grand jury decided not to indict Ms. Donham, or anyone else, as an accomplice in the murder.

“I was hoping that one day she would admit it, so it matters to me that she did, and it gives me some satisfaction,” said Wheeler Parker, 77, a cousin of Emmett’s who lives near Chicago. “It’s important to people understanding how the word of a white person against a black person was law, and a lot of black people lost their lives because of it. It really speaks to history, it shows what black people went through in those days.”

Till’s cousin Wheeler Parker who was with him the night of the incident – and when he was taken from his bed to his death, said: ‘My family thinks she’s trying to make money but being a preacher, I think she is trying to find a way to go heaven now.’

In this rarely seen photograph, Emmett Till, left, and his cousin Wheeler Parker, back right, are pictured on their bicycles. Rev Parker estimates the picture, which also captures family friend Joe B. Williams, was taken around 1949 to 1950

If conscience is the fear of hell, at least she knows where she's going. We have additional information about Emmett Till including another video on our history page.

Part of the Court.rchp.com 2017 Black History Month Series

Republished with permission under license from, BoingBoing with edits and additions.