Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman whose lie led to the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955, has died at the age of 88. Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was visiting family in Mississippi when he allegedly whistled at Donham, a white woman, at a grocery store. Donham’s husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, abducted Till from his great-uncle’s home, savagely beat him, and shot him in the head before tying a cotton gin fan around his neck with barbed wire and dumping his body in the Tallahatchie River. The murder garnered national attention and became a major catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement.

Bryant and Milam were acquitted by an all-white, all-male jury despite overwhelming evidence of their guilt. They later admitted to the crime in an interview with Look magazine, protected from double jeopardy. In 2007, Donham admitted that she lied about Till’s alleged advances, but no charges were ever filed against her. She lived the rest of her life in relative obscurity, and her death, on April 22, 2023, was confirmed by her family.

Emmett Till’s murder, and the subsequent trial and acquittal of his killers, sparked outrage and mobilized activists, becoming a turning point for the Civil Rights Movement. Rosa Parks, who refused to give up her seat on a Montgomery bus just months after Till’s murder, said she was thinking of him when she made her stand. The case inspired songs, plays, and documentaries, and Emmett Till’s name is still invoked today as a symbol of the struggle against racial injustice.

In the aftermath of the trial, the two men who murdered Till became pariahs, and their lives took a downward turn. Bryant and Milam were ostracized by the community, and their businesses failed. Bryant’s wife divorced him, and he later remarried twice, only to be divorced again. Milam’s life took a similar path, ending in financial ruin and isolation. Both men died decades ago.

Carolyn Bryant Donham, who ignited the spark that led to Till’s murder, disappeared from public view after the trial. She divorced Roy Bryant in 1975 and remarried, eventually settling in Raleigh, North Carolina. She largely remained out of the public eye, and her connection to the case was not widely known in her community.

In 2007, Donham admitted to historian Timothy B. Tyson that she had fabricated the story about Till’s advances, saying, “That part’s not true.” The revelation was included in Tyson’s 2017 book, “The Blood of Emmett Till.” Despite this admission, no charges were ever filed against Donham, and she continued to live her life in relative obscurity.

Donham’s death has reopened old wounds and renewed calls for justice for Emmett Till. Some argue that she should have faced charges for her role in the murder, while others believe that she, like the men who actually committed the crime, paid a heavy personal price for her actions. As a symbol of a dark period in American history, Emmett Till’s story will continue to resonate and remind future generations of the importance of standing up against racial injustice.