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White Woman Who Claimed Emmett Till Harassed Her: 'That Part's Not True'

By DNAinfo Staff | January 27, 2017 9:52am
 Carolyn Bryant (right) said she lied about 14-year-old Emmett Till groping and harassing her in a Mississippi store. That lie cost Till his life.
Carolyn Bryant (right) said she lied about 14-year-old Emmett Till groping and harassing her in a Mississippi store. That lie cost Till his life.
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National Museum of African American History and Culture/Wikicommons

CHICAGO — The brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till of Chicago is often cited as the crime that sparked the civil rights movement. Now, a woman whose claims spurred the horrifying crime has broken her silence about a lie that cost Till his life. 

Till went to a corner store for bubble gum while visiting family in Mississippi on Aug. 28, 1955 when a woman working there claimed he grabbed and sexually harassed her. Word got out about the incident and the woman's husband, Roy Bryant, set out for revenge. 

Bryant and his half brother J.W. Milam kidnapped, tortured and murdered Till. Despite overwhelming evidence of their guilt, it took an all-white jury an hour to declare the two not guilty in the slaying. Many say the testimony of Bryant's wife, Carolyn, led to the quick acquittal. 

Timothy Tyson, who is writing a book about the Emmett Till murder, interviewed the historically elusive Carolyn, according to Vanity Fair. She told Tyson the claims she made about Till groping and harassing her were “not true." 

“Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him," the 72-year-old told Tyson, according to Vanity Fair. She also said she felt “felt tender sorrow" for Till's mother, Mamie Till Mobley, but stopped short of repenting. 

Mobley continued fighting for civil rights until her death in 2003. Her insistence on holding an open-casket funeral for Emmett showed America how black people were treated in the South.

Read more about Tyson's book and his interview with Carolyn Bryant here.