Woman who accused Emmett Till dies at 88

April 27 (UPI) -- Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till before he was brutally murdered in Mississippi in 1955, died of cancer Tuesday.

Donham died in Louisiana while in hospice care, according to the New York Times.

On Aug. 24, 1955, she and 14-year-old Till were alone in a general store in Money, Miss. Afterward, she accused Till of coming into the store and putting "his left hand" on her waist. She also said he said, "What's the matter, baby? Can't you take it?'"

Four days later, Till was kidnapped, brutally beaten, and thrown into the nearby Tallahatchie River.

Despite being weighed down by 125 lbs. of metal, his body was retrieved days later, and it was revealed that he had been shot in the head.

Donham's then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam later confessed that they were the ones who killed Till. Donham's statements about her participation in the crime have been inconsistent and have changed over time.

Following his death, his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, demanded an open casket during his funeral so the more than 50,000 attendees could see the violence inflicted on her son. A photograph of the deceased boy lying in the coffin was instrumental in galvanizing activists fighting for civil rights.

In an unpublished memoir, Donham said she didn't know what would happen to Till after her accusations. She said that she denied that Till was the one who whistled at her when Bryant and Milam brought him to her but claimed Till identified himself.

Bryant and Milam were arrested and acquitted of murder charges by an all-white, male jury. The FBI investigated Till's case from 2004 to 2007, when a grand jury declined to bring charges against Donham for manslaughter.

In June, a team of researchers, including Till's relatives, found an unserved arrest warrant for Donham in the basement of a courthouse in Greenwood, Miss., prompting the Emmett Till Foundation to call for her to be charged.

In August, a Mississippi grand jury again declined to indict Donham on charges of kidnapping and manslaughter.

"The murder of Emmett Till remains an unforgettable tragedy in this country and the thoughts and prayers of this nation continue to be with the family of Emmett Till," District Attorney Dewayne Richardson said.

Last March President Joe Biden signed the Emmett Till Anti-lynching Act into law. It makes lynching a federal hate crime.