The death of Carolyn Bryant Donham on April 27, 2023, marked the passing of the woman whose accusations were central to the lynching of Emmett Till, a case that sparked a nationwide debate about racial justice in America.
Two white men lynched Emmett Till, 14, after a white woman accused him of whistling at her in Money, Miss., on Aug. 28, 1955. Photo courtesy National Museum of African American History and Culture
Donham, a white woman, accused Emmett Till, a 14-year-old black boy, of whistling at her in a family grocery store in Money, Miss., on Aug. 28, 1955. In response, two white men, including her husband Roy Bryant, brutally beat the boy to death and threw his body in the Tallahatchie River, weighing it down with a cotton gin fan. An all-white jury declined to convict either man, though they later admitted to the murder in a paid magazine interview.
A grand jury declined to indict Donham last year following the discovery of an unserved warrant for her arrest in Till’s abduction, and her death reopens old wounds for the family and all of Black America simply because justice never came.
Donham’s death serves as a reminder of the injustices of the past, a reminder of the dangers of racism and the need to ensure that no one ever has to experience something like the Till case ever again. America is a country with a profound history of systemic racial discrimination and injustice. As complicated as Till’s murder might seem, it is unresolved, not because America does not have all it needs to serve justice, but because it has a failed justice system built to favor only white people.
Sponsor Message
“The good old American judicial system has failed us yet again. Now Carolyn Bryant Donham will face her maker,” American filmmaker Keith Beauchamp said in response to the news of Donham’s death. From 1955 until her death, Donham evaded arrest for her role in Till’s abduction and brutal murder.
Till’s death sparked a nationwide conversation about the echoes of racial injustice in the United States and ultimately spurred the civil
Read original article by clicking here.