Woman at center of Till case sticks to state’s playbook

Bryan Davis

By Bryan Davis
Special to the Mississippi Center for Investigative Reporting

Carolyn Bryant Donham’s error-filled attempt to absolve herself of guilt in the 1955 kidnapping and brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till should come as little shock to those who have followed this story for years.

Donham’s unpublished memoir saw the light of day -- much like an over six-decade-old unserved warrant for her arrest -- for the first time ever this month, igniting even more fury and talk of a potential indictment.

Many were stunned by some of the obvious errors in Donham’s 100-page autobiography, but she was and still continues to follow the lead of the state that failed the Till family so miserably from 1955 onward.

When film crews came to the Delta to produce what became an ABC miniseries called Women of the Movement, one could feel the collective cringe at their presence in the region.

In a state that boasts just about every mention of itself on the big screen or on television, the show debuted and finished on the network with little fanfare.

Although a Hollywood depiction, the show aptly demonstrated just how badly the state of Mississippi failed Emmett Till, his mother Mamie Till Mobley and the rest of his family.

While Till’s relatives were still freshly mourning his loss, which came with torture and suffering at the hands of multiple white men, law enforcement and jurors joked how the later-confessed white killers’ acquittal would have come sooner had they not stopped to drink a Coke.

Leflore County law enforcement was portrayed much more favorably in WOTM than those in Tallahatchie County, but as the world learned this summer, it was the Leflore County sheriff in 1955 who declined to serve the arrest warrant for kidnapping, apparently due to the fact she was a young mother, according to media reports at the time.

And in recent years, the prevailing thought has been that “Donham is an old lady, so let it lie.”

The state of Mississippi has faced a number of things in its past head-on, even prosecuting and convicting multiple Klansmen and assassins who kidnapped and murdered others during the civil rights movement.

But the state has never had to truly face the lynching of Emmett Louis Till head-on.

Sure, if one wants to visit the barn where Till was beaten and likely murdered in Drew, the state won’t stop you.

But there has been no attempt to erect a historical marker anywhere near the site.

A marker does exist in Tallahatchie County, the place falsely believed for decades to have been where Till took his last breath.

But even that marker was so riddled with bullets that a private party had to place a new one, this time bulletproof, in its place.

It’s puzzling why the state takes so little interest in the case that virtually launched the entire civil rights movement.

The state has addressed its role in many shameful sins, from the Sovereignty Commission to the White Citizens Council, but it has been disinterested since 1955 in seeking justice for Till.

Just last week, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch issued a statement saying her department has no plans of reopening the Till investigation.

When it comes to justice in this case, expect the expected.

And expect Carolyn Bryant Donham to continue to tell half truths, deflect and simply avoid the subject from here on out.

The state of Mississippi set the example. She’s just following it.

Bryan Davis is the former publisher of the enterprise-Tocsin in Indianola, Mississippi.

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