THE FAMILY of Emmett Till have found an unserved warrant for the woman accused of being responsible for his lynching.
Relatives of the murdered 14-year-old black boy, say they found the unserved arrest warrant for Carolyn Bryant Donham – a white woman who accused the boy of whistling at her.
The discovery was made last week, by members of Till’s family, at the county courthouse in Greenwood, Mississippi.
“I cried. We cried. We hugged,” Deborah Watts, Emmett’s cousin, told CNN.
“Unbelievable. We held each other. Justice has to be served.”
The warrant is dated August 29, 1955.
It charged JW Milam, Roy Bryant and Bryant’s then-wife, Mrs Roy Bryant with kidnapping.
Ms Bryant Donham claimed the 14-year-old boy grabbed her and made sexual advances as she was working in a store.
Murder charges
Ms Bryant Donham’s husband at the time, Bryant, and his half-brother Milam, who were both white, were charged with Till’s murder.
Both men were both later acquitted by an all-white jury and both men have since died.
But Ms Bryant Donham is one of the last-living witnesses to the brutal lynching.
The warrant, which ordered their arrests was found in a dusty box by members of Till’s family, including Ms Watts.
Till was abducted, tortured and shot in the head in 1955.
His body was then thrown into the Tallahatchie River and discovered three days later.
Fight for justice
In March, Ms Watts, who is a co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, said the organisation has collected more than 250,000 signatures demanding murder charges against Ms Bryant Donham, who is still alive.
“We will bear witness to the hatred that has been embedded in our DNA since the slave ships arrived,” Ms Watts said on Friday, according to the Clarion-Ledger.
“We made a promise to [his mother] that we would persist and that’s why we’re here today.”
The investigation into the case was reopened in 2018, by the Justice Department, following the publication of a book The Blood of Emmett Till, by Timothy B. Tyson in 2017.
In the book, Mr Tyson claimed that Ms Bryant Donham, told him in a 2008 interview that parts of her testimony were not true.
But during the federal investigation, Ms Bryant Donham denied that she ever lied in her testimony.
Mr Tyson said he didn’t record Ms Bryant Donham when she made the confession.
But he insists he made detailed notes and stands by his reporting.
In December, the Justice Department ended their investigation into the case and said they did not have enough evidence to pursue it further.
Lynching bill
In March this year, US president Joe Biden has signed the first ever federal legislation making lynching a hate crime.
The historic bill is named after Till.
The Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act was signed into law on March 29, 2022, with members of Till’s family present.
According to Tuskegee University, which collects records on lynchings, 4,743 people were lynched between 1882 and 1968, with 3,446 of them being black.
The legislation was first considered 120 years ago and had failed to be passed into law almost 200 times.
Till’s mother, Mamie Till Mobley, had an open-casket funeral showing her son’s mutilated body.
The distressing images sent shockwaves around the world and were published in Black media outlets, Jet and The Chicago Defender.
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3 Comments
Serve the warrant. Isn’t murder one of the laws that has no time limit? Meaning you can be charged decades later. I hope that justice takes it’s rightful place in this matter. If she is eighty eight years old today. She is still living and still just as guilty. She now has a chance to right her wrong doing. A chance that Emmit Till never had. A chance to even face his accuser. A chance to speak his truth. And that was because of HER lies. They thought enough back then to write out a warrant for her. They should feel the need to do the right thing and serve it. Serve the warrant. She was guilty then and she is still that same guilty today. Serve the warrant. I’m so glad that the family stayed faithful to the promise they made to his mother. Look at where it has brought you to today. Because no matter what happens. You have proven her to be a liar. And more than that. Besides his family knowing they took an innocent life because of her lies. You have proven they knew it back then also that something was not right. Server the warrant.
If y’all locked bill Cosby up for something that happened decades ago. Lock her up too. Hold her accountable for her actions. She’s been living, making books doing speeches and interview lock her up NOW
Justice, need to be sought out!
Why was the warrant, not served or acted on? Why was she spared, yet Emmett Till was not. Her age, is not a factor. Arrest and Try her. This is wrong and an injustice.
Decades of Lies, and Cover Ups.
Up hold the law, and arrest her.
How long must the family and public wait.
She incited a Murder, with her Lies. Let her finished, whatever life she has left in Jail! The Law, applies to all! Not Some, or pick and chose who you apply it to.