Thread: Carolyn Bryant, accuser in the lynching of Emmett Till, dies at 88

Carolyn Bryant, elusive accuser in the lynching of Emmett Till, dies at 88

The wife of one of Till's confessed killers, she was a central figure in the 1955 murder that helped spur the civil rights movement

Carolyn Bryant was 21 years old in 1955, a former beauty queen with ivory skin, high cheekbones and piercing dark eyes. She lived a quiet life, raising two sons and working at her husband's Mississippi grocery, until a 14-year-old African American, Emmett Till, stopped in the store for bubble gum one August evening and was said to have wolf-whistled at her on the way out.


Days later, on Aug. 28, 1955, Till was abducted, tortured and shot. His body was tethered with barbed wire to a cotton gin fan and submerged in the Tallahatchie River. His mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, insisted that her son's remains be displayed in an open casket, laying bare for news photographers and the public the horrors of racism in the Deep South.

When Mrs. Bryant's then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother J.W. Milam stood trial for Till's murder, Mrs. Bryant testified in court that Till had propositioned her — a transgression that would have been unforgivable to a White man in the Jim Crow era.

Despite an avalanche of incriminating evidence, an all-White jury in Sumner, Miss., acquitted Bryant and Milam after little more than an hour of deliberation. One juror remarked that they would have reached a verdict more quickly had they not "stopped to drink pop." Shortly thereafter, the defendants confessed to the murder in a paid interview with Look magazine.
Mrs. Bryant, a central and ultimately elusive figure in a lynching that stunned the nation with its brutality and helped spur the civil rights movement, died April 25 at her home in Westlake, La. She was 88.

Her death was confirmed by the Calcasieu Parish coroner's office in Lake Charles, La. No cause was given in the statement. Mrs. Bryant had cancer and was under hospice care, the news site Mississippi Today reported.

For years, questions swirled about Mrs. Bryant's role in Till's abduction and whether she had identified Till for his assailants. After shunning interviews for decades, she received renewed attention in 2017 with the publication of the book "The Blood of Emmett Till," in which the author, Duke University professor Timothy B. Tyson, reported that she had recanted key portions of the testimony she had given in court in 1955.


"Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him," Mrs. Bryant, who had remarried and taken the name Carolyn Bryant Donham, was said to have told Tyson in a 2008 interview.

Shortly after the book's publication, federal authorities reopened an investigation into Till's murder and subpoenaed Tyson's research materials. That investigation was closed in December 2021 with no charges filed.

According to the Justice Department, Mrs. Bryant denied ever having changed her account. Also according to the department, Tyson claimed to have two recorded interviews with Mrs. Bryant but provided authorities with only one, which included no recantation. He offered what the Department described as "inconsistent explanations" about whether the alleged confession was on the missing recording or whether Mrs. Bryant made her remarks before Tyson began taping.

Justice Dept. closes Emmett Till investigation without filing charges
In any case, the statute of limitations for perjury — the state offense with which Mrs. Bryant might have been charged — had expired more than 60 years earlier.

"In closing this matter without prosecution," the Justice Department declared in a statement, "the government does not take the position that the state court testimony [Mrs. Bryant] gave in 1955 was truthful or accurate. There remains considerable doubt as to the credibility of her version of events."
https://www.washingtonpost.com/obitu...ett-till-dies/







"Carolyn Bryant, The woman who "Falsely" accused Emmet Till of wrong doing that lead to his death in 1955 and never received any punishment here on earth for his lynching has passed away today. As cold blooded, low down, evil as her actions was and as much hate that she had in her that lead her to do what she did yet the forgiving power of Jesus is strong enough to forgive someone like her only if she ask God to forgive her of her wicked ways..... From the guttermost to the uttermost Jesus saves.

Hope she made peace with God or else she's in eternal damnation."

Originally Posted by Barrie

Shameful in a hundred different ways

Hopefully she repented. God was gracious to her allowing her to live longer than most.