The leaked memoir of the woman whose accusations against Emmett Till led to the latter’s lynching gives new insight into the 1955 case.
Carolyn Bryant Donham, 88, wrote in her memoir that she never wanted Till killed and sought to help him by refusing to identify him, according to the Associated Press.
EMMETT TILL’S FAMILY CALLS FOR ARREST OVER 1955 LYNCHING AFTER FINDING UNSERVED WARRANT
“I did not wish Emmett any harm and could not stop harm from coming to him, since I didn’t know what was planned for him … I tried to protect him by telling Roy that ‘He’s not the one. That’s not him. Please take him home,'” she wrote. She claims that Till identified himself to his killers when questioned and that she believed her husband when he said no harm was going to come to Till.
Donham’s memoir also presents new claims regarding Till’s advances.
First, she claims that Till grabbed her hand and said, “Don’t be afraid of me, I’ve been with white girls before.” After running to the counter to grab a pistol, she claims that Till cornered her and grabbed her waist, making suggestive comments such as, “What’s the matter baby, can’t you take it?” and “You needn’t be afraid of me, I’ve f****d white women before.” After screaming for help, Till was pulled away by his cousin and they left, she claimed, according to the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting.
The memoir rebuts claims by a professor that Donham told him she made up her accusations of Till’s advances. A case indicting Donham for manslaughter opened back up in 2017 following claims that she confessed to making up her original accusations but was closed in December 2021 after she “denied recanting her previous testimony and the professor who claimed she made such a confession was unable to substantiate his claim and made inconsistent explanations to the FBI,” according to the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.
Till’s family and several investigators accused Donham of lying in the memoir and claimed that several major contradictions within it prove her guilt.
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Donham dictated her 99-page memoir, I Am More Than a Wolf Whistle, to her daughter-in-law in 2009 and intended for it to remain unpublished until her death.
Interest in the case has reignited recently after Till’s family members discovered an unserved warrant for Donham’s arrest in an old Mississippi courthouse basement.
