CNN
—
Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman whose accusation led to the 1955 lynching of Black teen Emmett Till in Mississippi – and whose role in Till’s brutal death was reconsidered by a grand jury as recently as last year – has died in Louisiana, the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office confirmed to CNN.
Donham, 88, died Tuesday in Westlake, according to a fact of death letter from the Calcasieu Parish Coroner.
CNN has reached out to the Till family.
In August 1955, 14-year-old Till was beaten and shot to death after he allegedly whistled at Bryant – now Donham – in Money, Mississippi.
Later, her husband, Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, took Till from his bed and ordered him into the back of a pickup truck and beat him before shooting him in the head and tossing his body into the Tallahatchie River. They were both acquitted of murder following a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett grabbed and verbally threatened her.
In 2007, a Mississippi grand jury declined to indict Donham on any charges.
This is a developing story and will be updated.
