Emmett Till Accuser Lied About Claims That Led To Lynching: Report

In a crime of racial hatred that served as a catalyst for the burgeoning civil rights movement, the White woman at the center of the offense has admitted to greatly exaggerating claims about Emmett Till, reports Boom 94.

Follow @GetUpErica

The Blood of Emmett Till, a new book by Timothy Tyson, claims that Carolyn Bryant Donham admits to lying about Till whistling at her, prompting a mob of White men to pursue and kill him in Money, Mississippi, at the height of Jim Crow laws in 1955.

“Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” Donham is quoted as saying in the book, writes the New York Daily News:

The woman’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Miliam, were charged with murdering Till, whose mutilated body was found in the muddy Tallahatchie River.

[…]

At trial, Carolyn Bryant delivered the most explosive testimony, claiming that Till had grabbed and threatened her inside her husband’s store.

[…]

“That part’s not true,” she says in Tyson’s book, according to Vanity Fair about Till’s alleged

Boom94 notes that the killing was a pivotal movement in the civil rights movement: “Especially, when his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, made the bold move to show the world her son’s disfigured body in an open casket funeral. The impact of this decision would influence JET Magazine to make the powerful image a cover story that ignited the fight for Civil Rights.”

Are you surprised by Donham’s admissions? Sound off in comments.