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With Carolyn Bryant’s Death, Where is Justice for Emmett Till?

NNPA NEWSWIRE — Last year President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law — legislation that had previously been killed more than 200 times. The passage was a hard-fought win, but the activist William Barber III reminded us that no law, “verdict or election can bring about the racial reckoning America needs after 400 years of building systems that have rested upon White supremacy.”
The post With Carolyn Bryant’s Death, Where is Justice for Emmett Till? first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

Published

3 years ago

June 5, 2023

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By Liz Courquet-Lesaulnier | Word in Black

Emmet Till deserved to grow old.

If he hadn’t been murdered in Money, Mississippi, on August 28, 1955 — if he had lived long enough to develop wrinkles and gray hair, and bounce his children, grandchildren, and possibly his great-grandchildren on his knees — he might have celebrated his 82nd birthday this July.

His mother, Mamie Till-Mobely, who died in 2003, might have had many happy years with her beloved son. She wouldn’t have gone to her grave with horrifying memories of his brutalized body. She wouldn’t have had to make the courageous decision to leave his casket open. There would have been no reason for her to say these heartbreaking words: “I wanted the world to see what they did to my baby.”

But thanks to the need of White men in the Jim Crow South to preserve the purity and honor of 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant — the White woman who falsely accused Till of making sexual advances at her — Emmet Till never made it past 14.

Carolyn Bryant — known later in life as Carolyn Bryant Donham — lived to the ripe old age of 88 without ever being held accountable for her part in Till’s murder.

As reporter Ed Pilkington wrote in the Guardian in 2020 about the people involved in Till’s murder, “Not a day has been spent in jail nor a penny paid in compensation.”

That was still true on April 25, the day Carolyn Bryant died.

A Last Chance for Justice

On the morning of April 27, before most people knew about Bryant’s death, the social media accounts of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation — the nonprofit founded in 2005 by Till’s family posted black squares to their various pages.

The squares were, perhaps, an acknowledgment that with Bryant’s death, the family’s last chance for justice for Emmett Till — for anyone involved in his murder to be held accountable — was now gone.

“This is not a celebratory moment,” Keith A. Beauchamp, the filmmaker who co-wrote and produced the 2022 feature film “Till,” explained on his Facebook page.

“Since 1955, law enforcement and local officials have allowed Bryant – Donham to evade justice. It’s infuriating to come to the realization that the American judicial system has failed us yet again.”

In his post, Beauchamp also acknowledged, “The question that everyone should be asking is how and who allowed this predator to get away?

Like Till’s family, Beauchamp has long pursued truth and justice for the murdered teen.

Beauchamp spent 10 years making the 2005 documentary, “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till.”

The evidence he uncovered was instrumental to the U.S. government reopening its investigation of the case in 2004 — before the film was released. However, no charges ended up being brought, and the investigation closed in 2007.

The FBI reopened the case after the January 2017 publication of the book “The Blood of Emmett Till,” by historian and author Timothy B. Tyson.

Tyson spent an unprecedented amount of time with Bryant, and he detailed in the book that she admitted to him that she had lied.

Tyson wrote that Bryant said: “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him.” However, he was unable to produce an audio recording of that specific conversation — he only had a handwritten note of Bryant’s remarks. The Till case was closed again in 2021.

An Unserved Arrest Warrant

Bryant’s death came just two weeks after the April 13 announcement that Ricky Banks, the sheriff in Leflore County, Mississippi, had declined to serve a recently discovered 1955 arrest warrant for Carolyn Bryant.

Why wasn’t the warrant served in 1955? The then-sheriff decided he didn’t want to “bother” Bryant because she was a mother.

This unserved warrant was found in June 2022 at the Leflore County Courthouse by five members of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation.

Despite the discovery of the warrant, in August 2022, a Leflore County grand jury refused to indict Bryant.

“It is evident that the outstanding warrant was not ever intended to be served in 1955 and obviously not intended to be served in 2022,” Deborah Watts, another cousin of Till and a co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, wrote in a statement at the time.

“This is a missed opportunity to break the cycle of protection that has been afforded to White women, specifically to Carolyn Holloway Bryant Donham, Mrs. Roy Bryant, the last living known accomplice, who has been allowed to escape full accountability and judicial judgment in this case. No family should ever have to endure this pain and injustice for this long,” Watts wrote.

In February 2023, another of Till’s cousins, Patricia Sterling, filed a federal lawsuit seeking to compel Banks to serve the warrant.

“But for Carolyn Bryant falsely claiming to her husband that Emmett Till assaulted her, Emmett would not have been murdered,” the lawsuit stated.

Bryant is widely believed to have identified Till to her husband, Roy Bryant, and J.W. Milam, Roy Bryant’s half-brother. It’s also believed that Carolyn Bryant helped the two men locate Till so that they could abduct him from his bed in his great-uncle’s home.

“It was Carolyn Bryant’s lie that sent Roy Bryant and JW Milam into a rage, which resulted in the mutilation of Emmett Till’s body into unrecognizable condition,” Sterling’s lawsuit stated.

However, on April 13, Banks’ attorney, Charles J. Swayze III, filed court papers stating, “Since the Grand Jury found no probable cause to indict Donham on the charges of kidnapping and manslaughter, there is no probable cause to support the 1955 Arrest Warrant.” Swayze also asked for Sterling’s federal lawsuit to be dismissed.

Despite this setback, the Till family didn’t give up.

In an April 26 Facebook post, Watts clarified that far from the discovery of the warrant being a surprise — as some news outlets had reported — she and the other foundation members were “intentionally Searching for the Unserved Warrant.”

Watts wrote that they found the warrant “within an hour and a half” of looking for it — raising the question of why it had not previously been discovered in the decades before.

Watts subsequently demanded “that Mississippi authorities that are responsible, do their jobs and #ServeTheWarrant now!”

Little did Watts know when she uploaded her post that Carolyn Bryant had died the day before.

We Can Never Forget

In 2003, one week before she died, Mamie Till Mobeley told Beauchamp to “tell Emmett’s story until man’s consciousness is risen, only then there will be justice for Emmett Till!”

Till’s “case is so relevant today because he is the Anne Frank for Black America,” Beauchamp wrote me in an email in 2015.

“Just like our Jewish brothers and sisters, we must continue to tell Emmett’s story over and over again.”

The details of what followed after Till’s abduction are horrific, but given the persistent attacks on teaching the truth about Black history — about American history — they bear repeating.

We know that Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam drove Till to a barn, stripped him naked, and tortured and beat him beyond recognition. A passerby reported hearing the boy crying out, “Mama, please save me.”

As the historian Tyson wrote, “Affronted White supremacy drove every blow.”

The men went on to gouge out one of Till’s eyes, shoot him in the head, and use barbed wire to tie his body to a 75-pound cotton gin. They then threw his body into the Tallahatchie River and took Till’s clothes and shoes home to burn them.

Despite the weight of the cotton gin, Till floated eight miles downstream. Once discovered, his body was only identifiable because of a silver ring on his pinky finger.

During Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam’s trial, Carolyn Bryant sat coolly beside her husband.

When called to testify, she claimed that Till had grabbed her hand and waist, asking her, “How about a date, baby?” She claimed he’d made sexually explicit comments and said he’d been with other White women.

Both men were acquitted in Sept. 1956 by an all-White jury.

We only know the details of Till’s murder because in 1956, Look magazine paid Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam $4,000 to spill the gruesome circumstances.

The article describes 5′ 4″ tall Till as looking “like a man” — a reminder of how from Emmett Till to Trayvon Martin to Tamir Rice, the combination of adultification and racism gets Black children killed.

Milam told the magazine that when a Black man “gets close to mentioning sex with a White woman, he’s tired o’ livin’. I’m likely to kill him. Me and my folks fought for this country, and we got some rights.”

He went on to say he told Till, “I’m going to make an example of you—just so everybody can know how me and my folks stand.”

Double jeopardy laws protected both men from being tried again for Till’s murder.

A Steep Price for Civil Rights

Surely, the actions of Mamie Till-Mobley weren’t what either man expected. The widely circulated photograph of Till’s mutilated body in the open casket requested by Till-Mobley shocked the world and galvanized the civil rights movement.

Her description of her son’s body is what no mother should ever have to see:

“I saw his tongue had been choked out and it was lying down on his chin. I saw that this eye was out, and it was lying about midway to cheek. I looked at this eye, and it was gone. I looked at the bridge of his nose, and it looked like someone had taken a meat chopper and chopped it. I looked at his teeth, because I took so much pride in his teeth. His teeth were the prettiest things I’d ever seen in my life, I thought. And I only saw two. Where are the rest of them? They had just been knocked out. And I was looking at his ears. His ears were like mine. They curled. They’re not attached, and they curled up the same way mine are. And I didn’t see the ear. Where’s the ear? And that’s when I discovered a hole about here, and I could see daylight on the other side. I said, now was it necessary to shoot him? If that’s a bullet hole, was that necessary? And I also discovered that they had taken an axe, and they had gone straight down across his head, and the face and the back of the head were separate.”

When you read Till-Mobley’s words, you understand why on Dec. 1, 1955, Rosa Parks had Emmett Till on her mind when she refused to go to the back of the bus — which led to her arrest and sparked the Montgomery Bus Boycott.

That, in turn, led to Martin Luther King Jr. becoming the president of the Montgomery Improvement Association — activism that catapulted him onto a national stage.

In 2005, the Rev. Al Sharpton told Democracy Now that because of Till-Mobley’s choice to open her son’s casket, “because she put the picture of this young man’s body on the conscience of America, she might have saved thousands of young Black men and young Black women’s lives.”

Last year President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act into law — legislation that had previously been killed more than 200 times. The passage was a hard-fought win, but the activist William Barber III reminded us that no law, “verdict or election can bring about the racial reckoning America needs after 400 years of building systems that have rested upon White supremacy.”

And what a steep price has been paid for our freedoms by Till and his family.

Another of his cousins, Thelma Wright Edwards, told the Guardian in 2020 that she didn’t actually want Bryant in jail due to the woman’s age.

However, “I do want Miss Bryant to admit she lied,” she said. “Stand up and tell the truth. We can’t move on until we hear it from her mouth.”

With Bryant’s death, that longed-for moment of accountability — of truth — will never come.

This piece was originally published by Word in Black.

The post With Carolyn Bryant’s death, where is justice for Emmett Till? appeared first on AFRO American Newspapers .

The post With Carolyn Bryant’s Death, Where is Justice for Emmett Till? first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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COMMENTARY: The National Protest Must Be Accompanied with Our Votes

Just as Trump is gathering election data like having the FBI take all the election data in Georgia from the 2020 election, so must we organize in preparation for the coming primary season to have the right people on ballots in each Republican district, so that we can regain control of the House of Representatives and by doing so, restore the separation of powers and balance that our democracy is being deprived of.

Published

3 days ago

February 10, 2026

Oakland Post

Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper. File photo..

By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper

As thousands of Americans march every week in cities across this great nation, it must be remembered that the protest without the vote is of no concern to Donald Trump and his administration.

In every city, there is a personal connection to the U.S. Congress. In too many cases, the member of Congress representing the people of that city and the congressional district in which it sits, is a Republican. It is the Republicans who are giving silent support to the destructive actions of those persons like the U.S. Attorney General, the Director of Homeland Security, and the National Intelligence Director, who are carrying out the revenge campaign of the President rather than upholding the oath of office each of them took “to Defend The Constitution of the United States.”

In California, the primary comes in June 2026. The congressional races must be a priority just as much as the local election of people has been so important in keeping ICE from acquiring facilities to build more prisons around the country.

“We the People” are winning this battle, even though it might not look like it. Each of us must get involved now, right where we are.

In this Black History month, it is important to remember that all we have accomplished in this nation has been “in spite of” and not “because of.” Frederick Douglas said, “Power concedes nothing without a struggle.”

Today, the struggle is to maintain our very institutions and history. Our strength in this struggle rests in our “collectiveness.” Our newspapers and journalists are at the greatest risk. We must not personally add to the attack by ignoring those who have been our very foundation, our Black press.

Are you spending your dollars this Black History Month with those who salute and honor contributions by supporting those who tell our stories? Remember that silence is the same as consent and support for the opposition. Where do you stand and where will your dollars go?

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Why Black Parents Should Consider Montessori

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — I have found that there are some educational approaches that consistently provide a safer, more enriching, and more affirmative environment for Black children. The Montessori method, developed by Italian physician Maria Montessori and introduced to the U.S. in the early 20th century, is one such approach.

Published

5 days ago

February 9, 2026

Oakland Post

By Laura Turner-Essel, PhD

As a mother of four children, I’ve done A LOT of school shopping. I don’t mean the autumn ritual of purchasing school supplies. I mean shopping for schools – pouring over promotional materials, combing through websites, asking friends and community members for referrals to their favorite schools, attending open houses and orientations, comparing curriculums and educational philosophies, meeting teachers and principals, and students who all claim that their school is the best.

But keep in mind – I’m not just a mom of four children. I’m a mom of four Black children, and I’m also a psychologist who is very interested in protecting my little ones from the traumatic experience that school can too often become.

For Black children in the United States, school can sometimes feel more like a prison than an educational institution. Research shows that Black students experience school as more hostile and demoralizing than other students do, that they are disciplined more frequently and more harshly for typical childhood offenses (such as running in the halls or chewing gum in class), that they are often labeled as deviant or viewed as deficient more quickly than other children, that teachers have lower academic expectations of Black students (which, in turn, lowers those students’ expectations of themselves), and that Black parents feel less respected and less engaged by their children’s teachers and school administrators. Perhaps these are some of the underlying reasons that Black students tend to underperform in most schools across the country.

The truth is that schools are more than academic institutions. They are places where children go to gain a sense of who they are, how they relate to others, and where they fit into the world. The best schools are places that answer these questions positively – ‘you are a valuable human being, you are a person who will grow up to contribute great things to your community, and you belong here, with us, exploring the world and learning how to use your gifts.’ Unfortunately, Black children looking for answers to these universal questions of childhood will often hit a brick wall once they walk into the classroom. If the curriculum does not reflect their cultural experiences, the teachers don’t appear to value them, and they spend most of their time being shamed into compliance rather than guided towards their highest potential, well…what can we really expect? How are they supposed to master basic academic skills if their spirits have been crushed?

Here’s the good news. In my years of school shopping, and in the research of Black education specialists such as Jawanza Kunjufu and Amos Wilson, I have found that there are some educational approaches that consistently provide a safer, more enriching, and more affirmative environment for Black children. The Montessori method, developed by Italian physician Maria Montessori and introduced to the U.S. in the early 20th century, is one such approach.

The key feature of Montessori schooling is that children decide (for the most part) what they want to do each day. Led by their own interests and skill levels, children in a Montessori classroom move around freely and work independently or with others on tasks of their own

choosing. The classroom is intentionally stocked with materials tailored to the developmental needs of children, including the need to learn through different senses (sight, touch/texture, movement, etc.). The teacher in a Montessori classroom is less like a boss and more like a caring guide who works with each child individually, demonstrating various activities and then giving them space to try it on their own. The idea is that over time, students learn to master even the toughest tasks and concepts, and they feel an intense sense of pride and accomplishment because they did it by themselves, without pressure or pushing.

I think that this aspect of the Montessori method is good for all kids. Do you remember the feeling of having your creativity or motivation crushed by being told exactly what to do, when to do it, how to do it, and why? The truth is that when presented with a new challenge and then given space, children actually accomplish a lot! They are born with a natural desire to learn. It is that spirit of curiosity, sense of wonder, and excitement to explore that Montessori helps to keep alive in a child. But that’s not the only reason that I think Black parents need to consider Montessori.

Fostering a love of learning is great. But more importantly, I think that Montessori students excel at learning to love. It begins with Montessori’s acknowledgement that all children are precious because childhood is a precious time. In many school systems, Black children are treated like miniature adults (at best) or miniature criminals (at worst), and are subjected to stressful situations that no kids are equipped to handle – expectations to be still and silent for long periods, competitive and high-stakes testing, and punitive classroom discipline. It’s easy to get the sense that rather than being prepared for college or careers, our children are being prepared to fail. Couple this with the aforementioned bias against Black children that seems to run rampant within the U.S. school system, and you end up with children who feel burned out and bitter about school by the time they hit 3rd grade.

In my experience, Montessori does a better job of protecting the space that is childhood – and all the joy of discovery and learning that should come along with that. Without the requirement that students “sit down and shut up,” behavioral issues in Montessori classrooms tend to be non-existent (or at least, the Montessori method doesn’t harp on them; children are gently redirected rather than shamed in front of the class). Montessori students don’t learn for the sake of tests; they demonstrate what they’ve learned by sharing with their teacher or classmates how they solve real-world problems using the skills they’ve gained through reading, math, or science activities. And by allowing children a choice of what to focus on throughout the day, Montessori teachers demonstrate that they honor and trust children’s natural intelligence. The individualized, careful attention they provide indicates to children that they are each seen, heard, and valued for who they are, and who they might become. Now that’s love (and good education).

As a parent, I’ve come to realize that many schools offer high-quality academics. Montessori is no different. Students in Montessori schools gain exposure to advanced concepts and the materials to work with these concepts hands-on. Across the nation, Montessori schools emphasize early literacy development, an especially important indicator of life success for young Black boys and men. Montessori students are provided with the opportunity to be

successful every day, and the chance to develop a sense of competence and self-worth based on completing tasks at their own pace.

But I have also learned that the important questions to ask when school shopping are often not about academics at all. I now ask, ‘Will my children be treated kindly? Will they be listened to? Protected from bias and bullying? Will they feel safe? Will this precious time in their lives be honored as a space for growth, development, awe, and excitement? Will they get to see people like them included in the curriculum? Will they be seen as valuable even if they don’t always ‘measure up’ to other kids on a task? Will they get extra support if they need it? Will the school include me in major decisions? Will the school leaders help to make sure that my children reach their fullest potential? Will the teacher care about my children almost as much as I do?’

Consistently, it’s been the Montessori schools that have answered with a loud, resounding ‘Yes!’ That is why my children ended up in Montessori schools, and I couldn’t be happier with that decision. If you’re a parent like me, shopping for schools with the same questions in mind, I’d urge you to consider Montessori education as a viable option for your precious little ones. Today more than ever, getting it right for our children is priceless.

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LIVE from the NMA Convention Raheem DeVaughn Says The Time Is Now: Let’s End HIV in Our Communities #2

Set against the backdrop of the NMA conference, Executive Officers from the National Medical Association, Grammy Award Winning Artist and Advocate Raheem DeVaughn, and Gilead Sciences experts, are holding today an important conversation on HIV prevention and health equity. Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV despite advances in prevention options. Today’s event […]

Published

1 week ago

February 3, 2026

Oakland Post

Black women continue to be disproportionately impacted by HIV despite advances in prevention options. Today’s event is designed to uplift voices, explore barriers to access, and increase awareness and key updates about PrEP, a proven prevention method that remains underutilized among Black women. This timely gathering will feature voices from across health, media, and advocacy as we break stigma and center equity in HIV prevention.

Additional stats and information to know:

● Black women continue to be disproportionately affected by HIV, with Black women representing more than 50% of new HIV diagnoses among women in the U.S. in 2022, despite comprising just 13% of women in the U.S.

● Women made up only 8% of PrEP users despite representing 19% of all new HIV diagnoses in 2022.

● Gilead Sciences is increasing awareness and addressing stigma by encouraging regular HIV testing and having judgment-free conversations with your healthcare provider about prevention options, including oral PrEP and long-acting injectable PrEP options.