Woman whose lie caused the lynching of Emmett Till has died

Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman who falsely accused Black teen Emmett Till of making sexual advances toward her, leading to him being brutally beaten and lynched by her then-husband has died.

She was 88.

Carolyn Bryant Donham dead at 88

According to reports, Bryant Donham died Tuesday from complications of cancer while in hospice care in Westlake, La.

Carolyn Bryant Donham’s false accusations led to lynching of Emmett Till

In August 1955, 14-year-old Till had traveled from Chicago to visit relatives in Mississippi. A then 21-year-old Bryant Donham accused Till of whistling at her after leaving a store in Mississippi. Till was later abducted from his great-uncle Moses Wright’s home by Bryant Donham’s husband Roy Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam.

Till’s brutalized body was found days later in the Tallahatchie River. Till’s mother held an open casket funeral and had the pictures published in Jet Magazine to show America what happened to her son. As a result, the gruesome images and Till’s murder, catapulted the civil rights movement.

Acquitted of murder

Roy Bryant and Milam were charged with Till’s murder but were acquitted by an all-white jury. Years later, the two men confessed to the killing in a paid magazine interview.

The U.S. Justice Department reopened the investigation into Till’s murder in 2018, after a book alleged that Bryant Donham had lied in her testimony to the FBI about Till’s actions, however, the DOJ was declined to file charges due to the inability to uncover sufficient evidence to federally prosecute her.

In 2022, advocates pushed for Bryant Donham’s arrest after an unserved arrest warrant for kidnapping, an attached affidavit from Wright and court minutes from 1955 were found in the basement of a Leflore County, Mississippi, courthouse.

However, a grand jury in Leflore County declined to indict Bryant Donham on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter in connection with Till’s death, citing not enough evidence.