Emmett Till’s Accuser Recants Part of Her Story — 60 Years After His Beating Death Stoked Civil Rights Movement

The woman at the center of the Emmett Till murder case has spoken out for the first time, more than 60 years later, admitting that part of her story about the black teenager is false, a new book claims.

Till’s brutal beating death in Mississippi in 1955, the acquittal of his professed killers by an all-white jury and the photos of his dead body sparked outrage outside the state — becoming a catalyst for the national civil rights movement.

Authorities say the 14-year-old from Chicago was killed during a visit to Mississippi after Carolyn Bryant Donham, a white woman then named Carolyn Bryant, reportedly accused him of grabbing her by the hand and waist and acting lewdly at her shop.

Till was kidnapped days later from a relative’s home and then beaten and mutilated, before being shot, by Donham’s shop-owner husband at the time, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam.

Till’s body was sunk in the Tallahatchie River, where it was eventually found floating.

After a highly publicized trial, Bryant and Milam were acquitted of Till’s kidnapping and murder in September 1955 by an all-white, all-male jury. They deliberated for an hour.

Donham testified at the trial and, according to Vanity Fair, her allegations were entered into the record and shared with reporters by her attorneys — but they were not heard by the jury, who had been excused from the courtroom.

In January 1956, Bryant and Milam confessed to their guilt in Till’s death in a Look magazine article. (Both men have since died.)

Donham avoided public attention for much of her life, ignoring journalists’ repeated requests. But she sat down with author and Duke University scholar Timothy B. Tyson 10 years ago for his new book, The Blood of Emmett Till, according to Vanity Fair and the Austin American-Statesman.

Donham’s 2007 interview, when she was 72, is being published for the first time. Of her accusation that Till had physically and verbally harassed her, she told Tyson, according to Vanity Fair: “That part’s not true.”

“Honestly, I just don’t remember,” Donham said of her fateful meeting with Till, according to the Statesman. “It was 50 years ago. You tell these stories for so long that they seem true.” Donham’s allegation that Till whistled at her has also been disputed.

On the stand in 1955, however, Donham claimed Till had said something “unprintable” to her and she was “scared to death,” according to Vanity Fair.

Messages left with Donham and her relatives for comment on Tyson’s book were not returned Friday.

Tyson said Donham, now 82, wrote her own memoir, More Than a Wolf Whistle, which is kept at the University of North Carolina but will not be available until the 2030s, at Donham’s request, according to Vanity Fair and the Statesman. (University officials could not immediately confirm the memoir’s existence.)
During their meeting, Tyson said Donham expressed feeling “tender sorrow” for Till’s mother, Mamie Elizabeth Till-Mobley.

She said, “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him.”

https://www.google.com/amp/people.com/c ... oid-google

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Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

Believe. Women.

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Yeah, but what if she legitimately feared her safety?

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funny, i often end up saying that with a comma and an exclamation point [respectively] instead of two periods =P

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I usually end up screaming that but with an exclamation point and a question mark instead. Unfortunately, the death of grammar is a tragedy that America will never truly get over.

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"Now comes good sailing. Moose. Indian."

The blogs have to necro stories from 2007 to get people outraged? Maybe this movement will die soon after all.

I bet you do.


All the time.

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"Play until it hurts, then play until it hurts to not play."
http://soundcloud.com/darkside124 HOF 2013, MM Champion 2014

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Why leave change on his grave?

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Why are only 14 percent of black CPS 11th-graders proficient in English?

I dont know. Thats the way the grave was when I too the picture.

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Did you want Frank to steal it?

He's not a monster!

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They thought the grave said Emmett's Till.

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Sex isn't dirty, sex isn't a crime. It's a loving act between two or more consenting adults.

-Hank Kingsley

Never could understand why someone like this kid is mentioned so prominently when civil rights month comes along. He did nothing other than whistle at a white woman in Mississippi, for which he was beaten and killed. Same thing with Rosa Parks. Did nothing but refuse to give up her bus seat. Now Michael "Mickey" Schwerner and Andrew Goodman, they went to Mississippi and facing death threats on a daily basis (knowing they were real) went about registering black folks to vote and educating them. They were the two white men who were depicted in the movie Mississippi Burning. They were murdered while knowingly risking their lives in the civil rights cause. Yet their names are never mentioned when civil rights month comes along, nor are any of the names of the white men and women who rode busses in Mississippi along with black folks and were beaten for doing so. Because they were white, their contributions are overlooked. Yet a kid who whistled at a white woman and a woman who wouldn't give up her seat are household names. Not saying that they should be thought of as insignificant figures in history, but compared to people who worked tirelessly in the civil rights movement and knowingly risked their lives for the cause?

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Go Cubs!!!!

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I'm happy knowing that your life is unfulfilling. It sustains me.

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Spiral

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Power is always in the hands of the masses of men. What oppresses the masses is their own ignorance, their own short-sighted selfishness.
- Henry George

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Yes, real serious. I see it as a travesty that people like Schwerner and Goodman who lost their very lives,are not recognized for their sacrifices, made for a cause for which they stood to gain no benefit from. Yet some 14 year old that lacked manners and a woman who wouldn't get up from her bus seat are seen as major figures in the civil rights movement. It is basically reverse racism. Because they are not black, their contributions as great as they were, are not recognized. Ridiculous.

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Go Cubs!!!!

White people always get the shaft when it comes to historical recognition.

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-- source

I don't necessarily want this woman to go to jail but I sure wouldn't mind her shitting her depends over the threat of
It for a few months

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O judgment! Thou art fled to brutish beasts,
And men have lost their reason.

He was a 14 year old kid and he was beaten unmercifully for doing something completely harmless. Grown ass white men beat a child so savagely that he was left completely unrecognizable. His death became symbolic of the era and the irrational hatred that was exhibited toward blacks, especially in the deep south.

Steve is a moron. Sensible thoughts like yours don't register in his Cro-Magnon sized brain. He must have another steak dinner bet on the line.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

He played for the Cowboys

Your 'stache is trash.

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Good people drink good beer - Hunter S. Thompson

<º)))><

Waiting for the time when I can finally say
That this has all been wonderful, but now I'm on my way

You don't understand yet something else, you didn't need to prove it yet again.

But keep trying little guy. Now go collect your obligatory participation certificate.

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

Yes, he was a 14 year old kid who was dumb enough to show a lack of manners in an area that had little tolerance for it from blacks. Of course his beating and murder was an outrage and garnered great attention. My point was that he should not be seen as a major civil rights figure, in that he really did nothing to further the civil rights cause, other than dying. Had he known his actions might have led to his beating and death, I doubt he would have whistled. Yet Schwerner and Goodman knew educating blacks and helping them register to vote, might very well lead to their death. Yet they chose to do it anyway. God damn heroes to the cause is what they should be seen as.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Where are all these people who don't see Schwerner and Goodman as heroes to the cause?

You are so delusionally racist.

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You didn't even know their names. Nor do 99.9% of the population, because the civil rights "leaders".......don't ever mention the names of anyone that is white that made significant contributions. They just want people to focus on black leaders, even if they didn't make nearly the efforts and contributions of Schwerner and Goodman. But at least now you know their names.

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Go Cubs!!!!

Do you really think white people are that oppressed they need recognition for another race's civil rights accomplishments? This is the first time I've ever even heard anything remotely close to this complaint.

White people are going to be ok. I promise. If you don't believe that, then take it up with the rich white people who have constructed this society.

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