The brutal kidnapping, beating and killing of Emmett Till is often taught as history, but the fight to bring those involved to justice continues 67 years later.
In August 1955, Chicago teenager Emmett Till was visiting family in Mississippi.
He was accused of whistling at a married white woman named Carolyn Bryant in a grocery store. Four days later, he was abducted from his great uncle’s home in the middle of the night. Till was brutally beaten, mutilated and ultimately shot. His body was then sunk in the Tallahatchie River, only to be discovered three days later.
When his body was returned to Chicago, Mamie Till, Emmett’s mother, insisted on an open casket funeral, despite the grotesque state of her son’s body. Photographs of his body would become some of the most influential pictures ever taken, inspiring many to join the Civil Rights Movement.
Till’s killers were Roy Bryant, Carolyn’s enraged husband, and J.W. Milam, Roy’s half-brother. Roy Bryant and Milam were found not guilty by an all-white jury in one of the most publicized court cases in history. They later admitted to the lynching. They sold their story to Look magazine for $4,000.
Till’s legacy as a civil rights martyr lives on – in March Congress passed the Emmett Till anti-lynching act – but the fight for justice continues as well. The same month Congress passed the law bearing his name, Emmett Till’s family came to the Mississippi capitol to ask for justice.
“We will bear witness to the hatred that has been embedded in our DNA since the slave ships arrived,” said Deborah Watts, a cousin of Till and co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation. “We made a promise to Mamie that we would persist and that’s why we’re here today.”
The foundation wasn’t just asking though, they were also searching through documents in a Mississippi courthouse. What they found may finally lead to someone serving time.
Inside of a file, itself inside of a box marked only by its decade, was the arrest warrant from the killing. It listed three names, Roy Bryant, J.W. Milam, and Mrs. Roy Bryant. Written in pen were two check marks above the names of the two men. There was no check mark above Mrs. Roy Bryant. Carolyn Bryant, now Carolyn Bryant Donham, was never arrested or tried in the case.
Deborah Watts’ daughter Terri joined her in searching for the document. Terri Watts told the Associated Press that Donham should be arrested and charged.
“Serve it and charge her,” Teri Watts told the AP in an interview.
The arrest warrant for Donham, who is now in her 80s and living in North Carolina, was public knowledge at the time of the trial. However, the LeFlore County sheriff at the time said he did not want to “bother” her because she had young children.
Timeline:
August 20, 1955
14-year-old Emmett Till leaves Chicago on a train from the 63rd Street Station, bound for Mississippi where he will be visiting family.
August 21, 1955
Till arrives in Money, Mississippi, and begins staying with his uncle Moses Wright.
August 24, 1955
Till and a number of other teenagers go to Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market. Till speaks with Carolyn Bryant, one of the white owners of the grocery store. There are conflicting accounts of what happened but Till allegedly flirted with and possibly whistled at Bryant.
August 28, 1955
At around 2:30 a.m., Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam kidnap Till from Wright’s home. They brutally beat the teenager, and ultimately shoot him in the head before dumping his body into the Tallahatchie River, weighed down by a large fan used in cotton processing.
August 29, 1955
Roy Bryant and Milam are arrested on charges of kidnapping in LeFlore County. Carolyn Bryant is also listed on the warrant, but she is not arrested.
August 31, 1955
Till’s body is discovered and pulled out of the river. Wright identifies the body based on Till’s ring, which had once belonged to his father.
September 3, 1955
Till’s funeral takes place at Roberts Temple Church of God in Chicago. His mother, Mamie Till, insists on an open casket. Thousands of people wait in line to see the body, and pictures of it are seen across the world.
September 6, 1955
Till is buried. A grand jury in Mississippi indicts Roy Bryant and Milam for murder. They plead innocent.
September 19, 1955
The trial begins in Sumner, Mississippi, with jury selection. An all-white male jury is selected.
September 21, 1955
In one of the most iconic moments of the trial, Wright stands up in the witness box and points directly at Milam, identifying him as the man he saw kidnapping his nephew.
September 23, 1955
After just over an hour of deliberation, the jury finds Roy Bryant and Milam not guilty of murder. They cannot be charged again with the same crime. The accused smoke cigars and kiss their wives for photographers.
September 30, 1955
Roy Bryant and Milam are released from jail, though kidnapping charges are still pending.
November 9, 1955
A grand jury does not indict Roy Bryant and Milam on kidnapping charges. Carolyn Bryant was never arrested or charged. The two men are now free.
January 24, 1956
Look Magazine publishes an interview with Roy Bryant and Milam where they admit to kidnapping and killing Till, and they describe how they did it. They were paid $4,000 by reporter William Bradford Huie for their story.
December 30, 1980
Milam dies of stomach cancer at the age of 61.
August 25, 1985
In an interview with the Clarion-Ledger and Jackson Daily News, Roy Bryant denies having killed Till, despite confessing nearly 30 years earlier. “Hell no, I didn’t do it!” Bryant said, though he then says Till deserved what he got. “I feel this way: If Emmett Till hadn’t got out of line, it probably wouldn’t have happened to him.”
September 1, 1994
Roy Bryant dies of cancer at the age of 63.
May 10, 2004
The Department of Justice announces they are reopening the Till case to investigate whether anyone other than Roy Bryant and Milam were involved. A series of federal investigations will follow.
February 27, 2007
A mostly Black grand jury does not indict Carolyn Bryant Donham, along with others, after they fail to find significant evidence that they took part in the kidnap or lynching.
January 31, 2017
Author Timothy Tyson releases “The Blood of Emmett Till,” in which he claims Bryant Donham told him during a 2008 interview that her accusations against Till were not true. Tyson did not have her recanting on tape, but did have it in his notes from the 2008 interview. Relatives of Bryant Donham have said she never recanted her accusations.
December 6, 2021
The Department of Justice closes its investigation into the Till lynching without finding any additional suspects.
March 29, 2022
President Joe Biden signs the Emmett Till Antilynching Act.
June 29, 2022
The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation announces they have found the original kidnapping arrest warrant, which lists Bryant Donham. Till’s ancestors call for her to be arrested and charged.
