Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman whose accusation against 14-year-old Emmett Till led to his brutal murder in 1955, has died at the age of 88.
Carolyn Bryant Donham dies: What’s the cause of death?
As reported by TMZ, the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office confirmed her death on Thursday, stating that she had been under hospice care while battling cancer.
Donham’s accusation against Till, a black teenager from Chicago who was visiting family in Mississippi, alleged that he had whistled at her in a store.
This accusation led to Till’s abduction, torture, and murder by Donham’s husband and brother-in-law, who assaulted and shot the teen in the head.
Till’s body was so badly disfigured that his mother decided to have an open-casket funeral, saying, “Let the world see what they did to my boy.”
Despite the horrific nature of Till’s murder and the confession of her husband and brother-in-law, Donham was never charged with a crime in connection with the case.
In fact, a warrant for her arrest was discovered last year in the basement of an old courthouse, but a grand jury declined to indict her for Till’s murder.
Till’s murder was a galvanising moment for the Civil Rights movement in the 1950s, and it continues to be a symbol of racial injustice to this day.
His death, along with the deaths of other black Americans at the hands of white supremacists, sparked protests, boycotts, and the push for Civil Rights legislation.
Last year, a feature film called Till was released, exploring the events leading up to Till’s murder and its aftermath. The film aimed to shed light on the racial terror that Black Americans faced in the Jim Crow South and the ongoing fight for justice and equality.
While Donham’s death marks the end of her life, the legacy of Emmett Till and the fight for racial justice lives on. The injustice of his murder serves as a reminder of the deep-seated racism that continues to permeate American society and the work that remains to be done to ensure that all people are treated with dignity and respect.