Emmett Till accuser Carolyn Donham ‘gave false evidence’

The woman at the centre of the trial of Emmett Till’s alleged killers said she falsely testified, a new book claims.

Mamie Till Mobley weeps at her son Emmett’s funeral in Chicago in 1955. Picture: AP

The woman at the centre of the trial of US civil rights icon Emmett Till’s alleged killers acknowledged that she falsely testified he made physical and verbal threats, a new book claims.

Historian Timothy Tyson said yesterday that Carolyn Donham broke her long public silence in an interview with him in 2008. His book, The Blood of Emmett Till, comes out this week.

“She told me that ‘nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him’,” said Tyson, a Duke University research scholar.

Till was 14 when he was tortured and killed in Mississippi in 1955 after allegedly whistling at a white woman, then known as Carolyn Bryant.

His murder was a galvanising event in the civil rights movement and has been the subject of numer­ous books and movies.

During the trial, Ms Bryant said he had grabbed her and, in profane terms, bragged about his history with white woman.

The jury was not present when she testified. Ms Donham’s then husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, JW Milam, were acquitted by the all-white jury. Both men, who later told Look magazine they did murder Till, have since died.

Milam’s widow, Juanita Milam, would later tell the FBI she believed­ that Ms Bryant had fabric­ated her story. Juanita Milam died in 2014. The Justice Department re-examined the case a decade ago, but no one was indicted as a murdere­r or an accomplice.

The maker of a documentary on Till said yesterday he had long been sure that Ms Bryant’s story was false. “His mother had mentioned that Emmett had a speech impediment and that the things Bryant claimed he was saying he could not have said easily,” said Keith Beauchamp, whose The ­Untold Story of Emmett Till came out in 2005.

Tyson said he spoke with Ms Donham after her daughter-in-law, Marsha Bryant, contacted him. Marsha Bryant had read Tyson’s book Blood Done Sign My Name, about a racist murder during his childhood in Oxford, North Carolina, and invited him to meet her and Ms Donham.

Tyson said he and Ms Donham had two conversations, both lasting up to three hours, and that he planned at the time to place the material in the archives at the University of North Carolina.

Asked why he waited so long to publicise his findings, he said histor­ians think in different terms than journalists. “I’m more interested in what speaks to the ages than in what is the latest media thing,” he said.

He said he was unsure whether Ms Donham knew about the book. He said he had fallen out of touch with the family and that when he last spoke with Marsha Bryant, a few years ago, she said Ms Donham was in poor health.

Till was a fun-loving teenager from Chicago visiting the Mississippi Delta and helping out on his great-uncle Mose Wright’s farm. On August 24, 1955, Till and some other kids drove to a local shop, Ms Bryant’s, for refreshments.

At the shop, some kids stayed on the porch, watching a game of chequers, while the others filed ­inside to buy bubblegum and soft drink. Ms Bryant, then 21 and the wife of proprietor Roy Bryant, was behind the counter. Accounts of what happened next differ.

Ms Donham claimed Till bragged about dating white women up north. She said he ­grabbed her and asked her: “How about a date, baby?”

Simeon Wright, his cousin, said he heard none of this. But there is no doubt about what he heard when they left the store, he told Associated Press in 2005.

Standing on the front porch, Till let out a wolf whistle.

Ms Donham’s whereabouts have long been a mystery, but North Carolina voter rolls list a Carolyn Holloway Donham. Hollo­way is her maiden name. The address is for a green, split-level home in Raleigh at the mouth of a neat cul-de-sac just two turns off a busy four-lane thoroughfare. The well-tended house has burnt-­orange shutters and a front-facing brick chimney decorated with a large metal sunburst. Orange flags emblazed with the word “Google” dot the lawn.

A woman, who appeared to be of late middle age, and a small barking dog appeared at the front door. When a reporter asked if this was the Bryant family home, the woman replied, “yes”. When asked if Carolyn Donham was at home, the woman replied: “She’s not available.” At first, she refused to accept a business card, but re­lent­ed after hearing about the upcoming book.

The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation has shared news reports about the book on Instagram and asked if Ms Donham would have the “decency and courage” to speak with Till’s relatives.

AP