New evidence in Emmett Till case spurs fresh calls for an arrest

A newly discovered, unserved arrest warrant is spurring calls for a new investigation into the case of Emmett Till, the 14-year-old Black boy lynched in Mississippi in 1955, and to charge a woman whose accusations led to his killing.

While searching a courthouse in Mississippi’s Leflore County last week, a team including members of the Till family unearthed a warrant meant for a “Mrs. Roy Bryant.” That’s Carolyn Bryant, the white woman who claimed Till whistled at her in a grocery store, spurring the most infamous lynching in U.S. history. The current Leflore County circuit clerk verified the warrant’s legitimacy, according to The Associated Press.

Bryant, who now goes by Carolyn Bryant Donham, evaded charges last year after the Justice Department said it didn’t have enough evidence to bring a case against her. In 2017, a historian’s book said Bryant admitted to him that she lied about Till being sexually crude toward her (it wouldn’t have warranted his killing anyway), but the Justice Department wasn’t able to verify those claims. Donham, now in her 80s, told investigators she never recanted her claim.

Here’s how the AP reported the revelation:

The search group included members of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation and two Till relatives: cousin Deborah Watts, head of the foundation; and her daughter, Teri Watts. Relatives want authorities to use the warrant to arrest Donham, who at the time of the slaying was married to one of two white men tried and acquitted just weeks after Till was abducted from a relative’s home, killed and dumped into a river.

The facts of Till’s killing are hardly debatable at this point. Although they were acquitted by an all-white jury, Donham’s then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother J.W. Milam eventually admitted to the lynching in a 1956 interview with Look magazine. Together, they confessed to abducting Till from his uncle’s home in Mississippi, shooting and brutalizing him, and throwing his body into a river tied to a heavy fan so he’d sink.

And Donham’s accusation, which she had to know would invite racist fury in 1955, set the plot in motion. She has not publicly commented the newly discovered warrant.

The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation is calling on Leflore’s district attorney to bring charges against Donham, but it’s unclear whether this warrant will drive any major legal developments. (Or whether federal and state officials even want to argue it should.)

Regardless, expect this latest finding to energize the movement fighting to make sure someone involved in Till’s death is finally held accountable.