February 8, 2017 The Skanner Page 9
News
Woman Who Falsely Accused Emmett Till Will Avoid Prosecution
Relatives of Emmett Till speak out after Carolyn Bryant’s confession to author of new book
By Erick Johnson
The Chicago Crusader/NNPA
Member
H
e’s been dead for more
than 60 years. Buried
with Emmett Till was
the truth to what led to
brutal murder in 1955. But
the latest development in the
case is not going well the Till’s
relatives in Chicago, the mur-
der boy’s hometown, where
schools and streets are named
after him.
A new book about the mur-
der is out and the woman
whose accusations led to the
brutal killing of the 14-year-
old confessed that her story
was a lie. Like Till’s killers,
Carolyn Bryant Donham will
not be brought to justice or
face any charges for perjury.
Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mo-
bley, never found justice for
her son before she died in
2003. Now, the last surviving
figure in one of the most shock-
ing murder cases from the Jim
Crow era will mostly likely go
unpunished.
Legal analysts say the case
involving Donham is too old
to prosecute, and Till’s killers
have been dead for a long time.
Till was a fun-loving teenag-
er who lived in Chicago’s pre-
dominately Black Woodlawn
Emmett Till
neighborhood for years before
he made a fateful trip to Mis-
sissippi at a time when many
Blacks were being lynched and
terrorized in the Deep South.
Till and his mother are buried
in Chicago’s Burr Oak Ceme-
tery. Decades after he was bur-
ied, the teenager’s grave con-
tinues to draw more visitors
than any other resting place
in the cemetery on the city’s
South Side.
Now, Till’s murder case is
back in the national spotlight
with a new book where Don-
ham recants her story after
more than 60 years of silence
since Till was brutally killed
by two White men in Money,
Miss. In the book, “The Blood
of Emmett Till,” Donham said
she lied during the criminal
trial before her husband, Roy
Bryant, and J.W. Milam were
acquitted after proceedings
that lasted just over an hour.
For decades, Donham re-
“
head before throwing his body
in the Tallahatchie River. Days
later, Till’s body was found
with a large cotton gin fan tied
around him with barb wire.
Mississippi officials urged
Till’s mother to keep his body
shut tight in the casket, but
Till-Mobley defied the orders.
Pictures of Till’s face in Ebony,
Jet and other newspapers hor-
rified the nation and the world.
At an open-casket funeral at
the Roberts Temple Church of
God in Christ in Bronzeville,
Till’s mother wanted to show
what the men had done to her
son. Black historians say Till’s
murder led Rosa Parks to re-
fuse to give up her bus seat in
a historic act that sparked the
Montgomery Bus Boycott and
Like Till’s killers, Carolyn Bryant
Donham will not be brought to jus-
tice or face any charges for perjury
mained silent as millions of
Americans were led to be-
lieve that Till whistled at her,
grabbed her and verbally
accosted her, before the two
men kidnapped him in the
pre-dawn hours of August 26,
1955. The two murdered Till
during a brutal beating that
severely disfigured Till’s face
and body. They shot him in the
the Civil Rights Movement.
The Emmett Till murder case
continues to burn with inter-
est today and is the subject of
many books and documenta-
ries.
However, this latest book on
Till’s murder is drawing sig-
nificant interest because it in-
volves an elusive White wom-
an who has broken her silence
after avoiding the press and
Till’s relatives for more than
60 years.
In 2004, the late “60 Min-
utes” correspondent Ed Brad-
ley located Donham at her
home in Greenville, Miss. His
cameraman captured her on
video, but the journalists were
chased away from the proper-
ty after Donham’s son arrived.
“The Blood of Emmett Till”
is already drawing rave re-
views from readers who have
received an early copy of the
book.
Written by Duke Universi-
ty scholar, Timothy B. Tyson,
the book also chronicles the
life of Donham, who is twice
divorced and married three
times. The book also answers a
question about the Till murder
case that many Blacks knew
for years: that Till did not flirt
with Donham.
On “CBS This Morning,”
Tyson said he was connected
to Donham after her daugh-
ter-in-law called him and told
him that she liked his previ-
ous book, “Blood Done Sign
My Name.” At the time, Don-
ham was writing her memoir,
which she said won’t be made
public until 2036.
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