Carolyn Bryant Donham, whom Emmett Till propositioned, then assaulted in her small grocery on August 24, 1955, has died. Bryant’s husband Roy and his half-brother, J.W. Millam murdered Till four days later. A jury acquitted them, but they later confessed to the murder.
Breaking News: Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman whose accusation led to the brutal murder of Emmett Till in 1955, is dead at 88. https://t.co/8zdVcrtg3C
— The New York Times (@nytimes) April 27, 2023
Without reprising the story’s details, it’s worth observing that Twitter is trending with #Rest in Hell. We are to believe that Bryant lied about that night, and that “her words doomed Emmett Till,” as the headline over a New York Times obituary put it. CNN offered this: Woman whose accusation led to the lynching of Emmett Till has died at 88, coroner says [by Dianne Gallagher, Sara Smart, and Emma Tucker, April 27, 2023].
Till was not “lynched,” and both inflammatory headlines are incorrect. Bryant did not tell her husband about the assault because she knew what would happen, as even the communist, Till-obsessed NYT admitted:
It has generally been assumed that Mrs. Bryant told him about the episode in the store soon afterward. In fact, [Devery S.] Anderson said, his research strongly suggested that she and her sister-in-law chose to suppress the incident altogether.
“She and Juanita [Millam, who was at the store] decided not to tell their husbands, because they knew they would go out and try to hurt him,” he said. “Some people, especially when they write me, they’ll say, ‘It was all her fault, because she told Roy.’ But she didn’t tell him.”
Someone did, though. As the African-American surgeon and civil rights leader T.R.M. Howard concluded from his own investigation in 1955, that person was most likely a local Black field hand. Several field hands had been playing checkers on the porch of the Bryants’ store that evening; one of them apparently told Mr. Bryant in an attempt to curry favor.
“One source said he got 50 cents’ worth of store credit for it,” Mr. Anderson said.
[Carolyn Bryant Donham Dies at 88; Her Words Doomed Emmett Till, by Margalit Fox, April 27, 2023]
So the NYT’s story contradicts its headline. And Anderson, who wrote Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement, said Donham’s role in the murder isn’t as clear-cut as Till mythologists make it. He believes she might have told her husband that Till wasn’t the “right one.”
No matter. Twitter leftists unleashed a hurricane of hate.
Some samples:
She lied, Emmett Till died. Rest in Hell? Hell is too good a place. She needs to go someplace worse. https://t.co/EmglT7W8wf
— TheHandsomeRandall (@HandsomeRandall) April 27, 2023
May she rest in HELL for what she did to Emmett Till. https://t.co/Geud8x6BjE
— Jacqualine 🇺🇸🇳🇬 (@JackieOLoveMe) April 27, 2023
We lost a little bit a hate yesterday.
— PiT BuLL hugger (@CleggAdrienne) April 27, 2023
Rest in hell lady💩 https://t.co/AFIB5Hoy80
"Rest In Hell" is trending because of Carolyn Bryant Donham passing #NeverForget how #WhitePrivilege allowed #CarolynBryant to see 88 while Emmett Till was lynched at 14 because of her lies#EmmettTill #AntiBlackRacism #FBA $ASS #CarolynBryantDonhampic.twitter.com/QerIzm4tf4
— P. Against The World🤘🏿🕊 (@chillin662) April 27, 2023
She lied, Emmett Till died. Rest in Hell? Hell is too good a place. She needs to go someplace worse. https://t.co/EmglT7W8wf
— TheHandsomeRandall (@HandsomeRandall) April 27, 2023
Note that they claim Till died because she “lied.” One might argue that Donham lied when she testified in court at her husband’s trial, or that she later lied about what happened.
But Donham did not initiate the events that led to Till’s murder, because, again, she didn’t tell her husband because she knew what he would do.
Whatever Donham told her husband on August 28, an unidentified black man apparently fingered Till for Roy Bryant.
One may assume that the #Rest in Hell tweeters don’t care.
