NEW YORK (AP) — The woman at the center of the trial of Emmett Till’s alleged killers has acknowledged that she falsely testified he made physical and verbal threats, according to a new book.
Historian Timothy B. Tyson told The Associated Press on Saturday that Carolyn Donham broke her long public silence in an interview with him in 2008. His book, “The Blood of Emmett Till,” comes out next week.
“She told me that ‘Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,'” said Tyson, a Duke University research scholar whose previous books include “Blood Done Sign My Name” and “Radio Free Dixie.”
Emmett Till was a 14-year-old black tortured and killed in 1955 in Mississippi after allegedly whistling at a white woman, then known as Carolyn Bryant.
His murder became national news, was a galvanizing event in the civil rights movement and has been the subject of numerous books and movies. During the trial, Bryant said that he had grabbed her, and, in profane terms, bragged about his history with white woman. The jury was not present when she testified.
Donham’s then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, were acquitted by the all-white jury. Both men, who later told Look magazine they did murder Till, have since died. Milam’s widow, Juanita Milam, would later tell the FBI she believed that Carolyn Bryant had fabricated her story. Juanita Milam died in 2014. The Justice Department re-examined the case a decade ago, but no one was indicted as a murderer or an accomplice.
On Saturday, the maker of a documentary on Till said he had long been sure that Bryant’s story was false.
“His mother had mentioned that Emmett had a speech impediment and that the things Bryant claimed he was saying he could not have said easily,” said Keith Beauchamp, whose “The Untold Story of Emmett Till” came out in 2005.
Tyson said that he spoke with Donham after her daughter-in-law, Marsha Bryant, contacted him. Bryant had read “Blood Done Sign My Name,” about a racist murder during his childhood in Oxford, North Carolina, and invited Tyson to meet with her and Donham.
Tyson said he and Donham had two conversations, both lasting 2-3 hours, and that he planned at the time to place the material in the archives at the University of North Carolina. Asked why he waited so long to publicize his findings, he responded that historians think in different terms than do journalists.
“I’m more interested in what speaks to the ages than in what is the latest media thing,” he said.
He added that he wasn’t sure whether Donham knew about the book. He said he had fallen out of touch with the family and that when he last spoke with Bryant, a few years ago, she said Donham was in poor health.
Till was a fun-loving teenager from Chicago visiting the Mississippi Delta and helping out on his great-uncle Mose Wright’s farm. On Aug. 24, 1955, Till and some other kids drove to a local store, Bryant’s, for refreshments. At Bryant’s, some of the kids stayed on the porch, watching a game of checkers, while the others filed inside to buy bubble gum and sodas. Carolyn Bryant, the 21-year-old wife of proprietor Roy Bryant, was behind the counter.
Accounts of what happened next differ.
Mrs. Bryant claimed Emmett bragged about dating white women up north. She said he grabbed her and asked her, “How about a date, baby?” Simeon Wright, his cousin, heard none of this. But there is no doubt about what he heard when they left the store, he told the AP in 2005.
Standing on the front porch, Emmett let out a wolf whistle.
Carolyn Donham’s whereabouts have long been a mystery, but North Carolina voter rolls list a Carolyn Holloway Donham. Holloway is her maiden name.
The address is for a green, split-level home in Raleigh at the mouth of a neat cul-de-sac just two turns off a busy four-lane thoroughfare. The well-tended house has burnt-orange shutters and a front-facing brick chimney decorated with a large metal sunburst. Orange flags emblazed with the word “Google” dot the lawn.
A woman, who appeared to be of late middle age, and a small barking dog appeared at the front door. When a reporter asked if this was the Bryant family home, the woman replied, “Yes.”
When asked if Carolyn Donham was at home, the woman replied, “She’s not available.”
At first, she refused to accept a business card, but relented after hearing about the upcoming book.
The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation has shared news reports about the book on Instagram and asked if Donham would have the “decency and courage” to speak with Till’s relatives.
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AP National Writer Allen Breed contributed to this report from North Carolina
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A White woman who lied and caused the brutal murder of an innocent Black male.
Oh, and the planet Venus is hot.
No surprise.
White women have been lying on Black men and Black boys for centuries.
Racist white supremacist White women through the years have been lying down with Black men and spreading their legs East, West, North, and South and then jumping up and crying rape when White male relatives walked in on the consensual sex.
White women who wanted the black penis because they smoldered in anger at their White male relatives who raped and brutalized defenseless Black women and little 7-, 10-, 13-year-old Black girls.
But, that discussion is for an upcoming post I am working on.
After the trial, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant confessed about the murder and because of double jeopardy could not be retried on Emmett Till’s murder.
As for Juanita Milam , whatever she knew about little Emmett’s lynching, she took that to her grave. I find it hard that those four did not sit around discussing the murder after the farce of a trial ended.
The murder of Emmett took him from the loving arms of his mother, Mrs. Mamie Till.
Mamie Till Mobley collapses when her son Emmett’s body arrives at the old Illinois Central Railroad after his murder by racists in Mississippi. On her left, with the white collar, is Alva Doris Roberts’ husband, Bishop Isaiah L. Roberts, who presided over the funeral. On the right, also dressed in clerical black, is Bishop Louis Henry Ford, who did the youth’s eulogy. An Illinois freeway is named after Bishop Ford. | Sun-Times library
As for Carolyn Bryant, she committed perjury, and according to the state of Mississippi, the statute of limitations on perjury prevents her from being charged with that crime.
She may think her recanting and confessing all these years later will guarantee her a seat in Heaven. No such thing is guaranteed when you have offended the Most High and expect a quick recanting means all is forgiven at the last moment when you are near death. The Creator sees though that hypocrisy just as much as He does any other abomination.
Nazi war criminals into this century can still be brought to justice, but, the racist murdering savage rapists and murderers of so many innocent Black people—they are still allowed to roam the earth.
Carolyn Bryant
She may not be able to be brought to justice for murdering a young and innocent child, but, there is kismet that exists in the universe, and payback is a bitch.
BEAUTIFUL, ALSO, ARE THE SOULS OF MY BLACK SISTERS 