The woman who accused 14-year-old Emmet Till of flirting with her in 1955 revealed for the first time that those claims were fabricated.
Vanity Fair reports that Timothy Tyson, the author of a new book titled The Blood of Emmett Till, spoke with Carolyn Bryant Donham, who was 21-years-old when she accused Till of making verbal and physical advances towards her. Donham’s claims against Till enraged two white men, J.W. Milam and his half-brother Roy Bryant, who abducted and murdered Till three nights later, leaving his body bludgeoned, bruised and left at the bottom of the Tallahatchie River in Mississippi.
Both Milam and Bryant were ultimately acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury. They later admitted to their crime in a story for Look magazine, for which they were compensated $3,000. Donham, who is now 82, testified at the trial. Her testimony further criminalized Till, whose humanity meant little to the jury of white men charged with seeking justice for a young black man accused of whistling at a white woman.
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