NEWSFLASH… the white woman who was the catalyst behind the brutal lyncing of Emmett Till has died.
Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman at the center of the 1955 kidnapping and brutal murder of Emmett Till, which later sparked the Civil Rights Movement, has died at the age of 88 after a battle with cancer.
It was this woman’s lie about 14-year-old Till, which lead to the young Black boy’s lynching.
Till crossed paths with Donham, who was then 20, in Mississippi at the grocery store she ran with her husband. Donham accused Till of grabbing and propositioning her despite witness accounts saying he only whistled at her.
Donham’s husband and brother-in-law abducted and lynched Till days after her accusations, brutally tortured the teen and even mutilated his body.
In 2008, Donham reportedly recanted her allegation that Till harassed her before his murder.
For years, activists have demanded that Donham be brought to justice for her deadly lie.
It was just a few months ago that Emmitt Till’s cousin filed a federal lawsuit demanding that Donham be arrested after warrant issued against her in 1995 was found hidden in a Mississippi courthouse basement.
“It was Carolyn Bryant’s lie that sent Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam into a rage, which resulted in the mutilation of Emmett Till’s body into a[n] unrecognizable condition,” the lawsuit states.
Despite the family’s efforts, a grand jury in Mississippi declined to indict Dunham last August.
Dunham’s death ends any hope that anyone connected to the lynching of 14-year-old Till will ever be brought to justice.