Justice Department Closes Emmett Till Investigation Without Charges After Failing To Prove Key Witness Lied
On Monday, the U.S. Justice Department told relatives of Emmett Till that it is ending its latest investigation into the 1955 lynching of the Black teenager from Chicago who was kidnapped, tortured, and killed after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi.
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As it was previously reported, the DoJ reopened the case in 2018 after a book cast doubt on the testimony of a white woman who was central to the case. Carolyn Bryant Donham said Emmett had grabbed her by the waist and asked her for a date while she was alone in the family grocery store on the evening of 24 August 1955 in Money, Mississippi. The 2017 book, The Blood of Emmett Till, by historian Timothy Tyson, quoted her as recanting this story.
However, the latest inquiry was officially closed after failing to corroborate the author’s claim that the key figure in the case lied. The DoJ said in a statement on Monday that the FBI had interviewed Ms. Donham, and she had denied ever disavowing her testimony, and did not provide any further information. Till’s family said it was ultimately disappointed by the news that there will continue to be no accountability for the infamous killing, with no charges being filed against Donham.
“Today is a day we will never forget,” Till’s cousin, the Rev. Wheeler Parker, said during a news conference in Chicago. “For 66 years we have suffered pain. … I suffered tremendously.”
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