Expert on Emmett Till case says there'll never be justice after accuser's death
CHICAGO (CBS) – In 1955, Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago, was found dead in the waters of Mississippi.
He has been tortured and lynched after being accused of whistling at a white woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham. Days later, her husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, abducted Till and killed him.
On Thursday, April 27, Carolyn Bryant Donham died at age 88. She was the last surviving person who could have been held accountable for Till's death.
His death and the events that unfolded were part of the revolution of the Civil Rights movement, and continue to make an impact today.
We asked the attorney who represents the Emmett Till family about Donham's death, and what this means for the case.
"We believe there never could have been justice in the brutal lynching of him until justice would have meant that Emmett would have come home alive and intact in 1955," Christopher Benson, Northwestern University professor and attorney, told CBS 2's Joe Donlon. "What we'd hope for was that there would be some accountability; that at some point, she would at least have told the truth. Obviously, none of that's going to happen now."
The two men were acquitted by an all-white jury. Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam have also died.
For decades, there was no movement on the case. As part of the Cold Case Initiative, federal officials reopened the case in 2004, but "lacked jurisdiction to bring federal charges"
It was then reopened again 2017, when a North Carolina historian and author's book "The Blood of Emmett Till" gave the FBI interview recordings, but the case was closed once again closed in 2021.
Last year, an arrest warrant for Donham was found by investigators in a Mississippi court basement.
"So we at this point believe that that all possibilities have been exhausted, and the only thing we have left is the story of that horrible event," Benson said. "Carolyn Bryant never told the truth. We can never stop telling the truth."
President Joe Biden signed an anti-lynching bill named after Emmett Till in 2022. It officially made lynching a federal hate crime, 67 years after Till's death.
Almost 70 years later, Benson says that there are still similarities within society and the justice system.
"What we see now is that people are reacting violently to what we see is about to happen, and that is a change in our demographic reality in this country. It's really about power, and people are afraid that power sharing means that they're going to lose power – and they're pushing back in every way possible."
On April 29, Argo Community High School in Summit is unveiling a statue honoring Mamie Till-Mobley. Argo is Till-Mobley's alma mater. She was an honor student who had a successful teaching career. Because she insisted her son's funeral was an open casket, she also became a key figure in the Civil Rights movement.
"Death had a great impact on transforming this country," Benson said. "The challenge for us now is to find some meaning and all that to continue to be involved in creating a just, a truly trust, just society."
