April 28, 2023

"He came in our store and put his hands on me with no provocation. Do I think he should have been killed for doing that? Absolutely, unequivocally, no!"

Wrote Carolyn Bryant Donham, in an unpublished memoir, quoted in "Carolyn Bryant Donham Dies at 88; Her Words Doomed Emmett Till/She accused Emmett, 14, of accosting her, and her testimony led to the acquittals of her husband and his half brother in a murder that helped galvanize the civil rights movement" (NYT).

The unpublished memoir — "More Than a Wolf Whistle: The Story of Carolyn Bryant Donham" — came to light after Duke University historian Timothy B. Tyson published "The Blood of Emmett Till" in 2017. Tyson had interviewed her, and he said "She said with respect to the physical assault on her, or anything menacing or sexual, that that part isn’t true." 

At the trial of her husband and half brother, she testified that Till “put his left hand on my waist, and he put his other hand over on the other side" and that he said "What’s the matter, baby? Can’t you take it?"

43 comments:

tommyesq said...

So do we believe all women or not? Getting hard to keep track these days.

RideSpaceMountain said...

Believe all women before #believeallwomen. Gotta admit I'm kinda torn. Which woman am I politically and correctly obligated to believe? Before or after? Aren't you guys confused? Me too guys. Me too.

William said...

The rule of thumb is to believe all women. There's some obvious conflict here with the larger, more important narrative. The way to reconcile this conflict is not to report on it or to report on it only in a muted way.....The Harvey Weinstein got a lot of coverage. One thing you never saw written about him is that he was a big fund raiser for Democrats.

gilbar said...

serious question:
Would she have lived This long? If her story WASN'T that Till didn't do anything?

Darkisland said...

"Believe all women!"

"A woman would never lie about something like this."

John Henry

Owen said...

One of the memorable lines in “To Kill A Mockingbird” is the sheriff’s advice, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

Emmett Till was killed in 1955. These racy details of what might have happened exist in a surreal zone of imagination and memory —which, after all, is just a special kind of imagination.

These details very probably could not have been proven or disproven at the time. And now? After almost three score and ten years? Not a chance.

Why then the raking-over of long-dead ashes? What is gained?

Gahrie said...

Why then the raking-over of long-dead ashes? What is gained?

It keeps Black people perpetually angry against White people.

Gahrie said...

So do we believe all women or not? Getting hard to keep track these days.

I'm still waiting for someone to define what a woman is.

Enigma said...

We do have a bias to believe and protect women. Couple that with young and anger-prone males, and you've got a formula for violence. Many historical race-relation issues follow from the inability of many people to get past skin color and cultural differences. There's no evidence they ever will, barring intermarriage and the end of the source cultures. But that happens 2-3 generations after a conflict arises.

Both South Africa and the Old South tried to prevent violence through racial or tribal segregation/apartheid. Now, the New Left is bringing it back via "safe spaces" and segregated college graduation ceremonies. People choose to move to US states that match their own race -- compare the demographic trends of Georgia versus Tennessee. People choose neighborhoods based on race too.

So, I'm counting the days for the New New Left to reject everything it advocated during the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s.

Leftism = blind changes for the sake of change. "Try something."

Rightism = blind stubbornness for the sake of stubbornness. "Don't rock the boat."

Lash LaRue said...

Her assertion was not under oath. It carries no weight.

rcocean said...

THe Professor quoted lied about what she said. She did say she felt unsafe, she did feel menanced, and actually left the store counter and went into the back room to get away from Till. And get a gun.

According to her, Till came AROUND THE COUNTER, grabbed her around the waist from behind, thrust his groin against her buttocks, and said said various lewd things, including "Don't worry, baby, I've been with plenty of white women, I know what they need".

Journalist/Professor was a liar. "Oh, we had this conversation where she told me Till didn't do anything, but gosh I forgot to tape THAT PART, and I forgot to take any notes of THAT part, even though I have tape/notes on everything else. Gosh, what a dumb-head I am!"

That NYT would lie about a 88 year old woman, a victim of sexual assault is amazing. This power elite sure does hate average white people don't they? They NEVER miss a chance to stir up racial hatred and division, even if its dredging up a 60 year old lynching!

Wince said...

Do I think he should have been killed for doing that? Absolutely, unequivocally, no!"

Since we are doing Jan6 moral equivalencies this morning...

Now do Ashli Babbit.

Ampersand said...

Just another fragment of glass in the tragedy kaleidoscope.

Owen said...

Gahrie @ 8:31: "...perpetually angry..." Yes, of course. And for me that is the ongoing crime. Emmett Till has been turned into a cue card for the usual outbursts, the engineered outrage. Which has IMHO murdered many more than that hapless teenager long ago. The crime is a continuing pollution of the mind and spirit, a staining and straining of the far-too-fragile fabric of our society.

It's the everlasting Sharptonization and Floydification that drives me nuts.

Two-eyed Jack said...

Rashomon.

Andrew said...

I can think of a number of murder victims who suffered terribly before they were killed. Channon Christian and Hugh Newsom in Knoxville, for example. Or the victims of the Wichita Horror. I'm not minimizing the crime against Till, who was younger, and whose murderers got away with it. But I wish that the other, more recent victims received the attention they deserved.

Kevin said...

Why then the raking-over of long-dead ashes? What is gained?

The demand for lynching of Blacks greatly exceeds the supply.

Deevs said...

Lash LaRue, "Her assertion was not under oath. It carries no weight."

I may be wrong, but the last paragraph in Althouse's post indicates the contrary as she made that statement in court. Unless you mean her assertion she didn't want Till killed. Or maybe you're making a joke that's going over my head.

gahrie said...

According to her, Till came AROUND THE COUNTER, grabbed her around the waist from behind, thrust his groin against her buttocks, and said said various lewd things, including "Don't worry, baby, I've been with plenty of white women, I know what they need".

I simply don't believe that. It would be outrageous for someone to act that way today, and literally unthinkable at the time. Did he violate some racial code he was ignorant of? Likely. Did he deserve what happened to him. Nope. Should someone have been punished for what happened to him? Surely. Who kept that from happening? Democrats.

Michael K said...


That NYT would lie about a 88 year old woman, a victim of sexual assault is amazing. This power elite sure does hate average white people don't they? They NEVER miss a chance to stir up racial hatred and division, even if its dredging up a 60 year old lynching!


I was in high school at the time and I could believe that a black teen from Chicago could do that. He should not have been killed but in 1955 he should have known better. That was about the time I read Griffin's book, "Black Like Me" Actually, his time in the South was 4 years later. His description of the time there is chilling.

narciso said...

yes it's been nearly 60 years move on, an nypd officer ate his gun because al sharpton engineered a a false rape accusation, that was the beginning of his career,

Jupiter said...

You think that's bad, you should read about what happened to Julius Caesar. Fucking Brutus.

hombre said...

NYT stirring the pot with 65-year old event.

Who shook the jar? The leftmediaswine shook the jar. https://youtu.be/-uX1sgH3iEo

Josephbleau said...

“One of the memorable lines in “To Kill A Mockingbird” is the sheriff’s advice, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

The Sheriff was quoting Jesus, of course, without attribution.

The recanting of the testimony is sickening, interviewing an old lady without recording or taking notes and announcing that she admitted to lying is the lowest of low lying journalism. Let’s induce gullible old people to interview us, then when they die we can say they admitted to anything we want.

rcocean said...

About 10,000 black people a year have been murdered 1955. That about 650,000 dead black people. 90 percent were killed by other black people.

But Emmitt till still must be talked about about. And mourned. I know we gave George Floyd 4 celebrity style public funerals. Did we ever dig Till up and give him one?

hombre said...

Enigma: "We do have a bias to believe and protect women."

Not always. There is a segment of the population that is amenable to putting women at risk on the athletic field from bullying cheaters called "trans women." The risk from "trans women" extends to locker rooms, public toilets, even womens' prisons.

That segment of the population calls itself Democrats. Democrats are also willing to put little girls at risk on operating tables to pander to trans activists.

taco said...

The FBI investigated Tyson's claim and concluded that he was lying (though not in so many words).

You'll never hear from the media, but the reason Bryant testified about Till sexually assaulting her was because the PROSECUTION was trying to establish a motive for her husband to have murdered Till. It wasn't offered by her or her husband as a justification or defense. The defense at the trial was that the body (which was unrecognizable) was someone else's, that Till had skipped town and left. The body was ID'd by a ring with Till's father's initials on it (not his own). Till had the ring because his father had been forced to enlist in WW2 for repeatedly brutalizing Till's mother and nearly killing her. While in Europe the father was executed by the army for raping two (white) women and murdering a third.

Any honest person would admit that Bryant's story is probably true and that the whole "wolf whistle" narrative is a media fabrication. In that respect Emmett Till didn't mark the end of an era but the beginning of a new one.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

Wolf-whistling and unwanted touching? In todays America, Till would be pilloried for what he allegedly did.

Big Mike said...

Emmett Til would have been 82 in July.

Free Manure While You Wait! said...

"It keeps Black people perpetually angry against White people."

The better to keep them down, my pretty.

madAsHell said...

The rule of thumb is to believe all women.

The rule of thumb???.....Are you kidding me!!! Hilarious.

Richard Aubrey said...

ANdrew. There's Jessica Whittaker and Justine Damond.
But the people in charge of telling us where to ostentatiously direct our highly virtuous moral outrage left them off the list. Somehow.

M said...

What is never brought up in these articles is that even at his young age Till was already a behavioral problem at home and in his community and his father was a convicted rapist. It is NOT a stretch to believe he did this. Was the response of the husband and his cronies appropriate? No, of course not. Was Till’s actions appropriate? No.

Black men are murdered at nearly twice the numbers as white men in America. Almost all by other black men. Black women are murder at half the number of white women. Black women are almost all murdered by black men. The only time white men kill black women is when they are in a relationship with them or they are serial killers who prey on prostitutes. White men do not generally prey on black women.

White women are murdered by both white and black men. Most white on white murders are known to each other. Black men are known to prey on white women unknown to them who are not prostitutes. Black men have always been a threat to white women. When they have social access to white women black men are as much or more of a threat to white women than white men are, per capita. That is backed up by statistics but no one can admit it in this political climate.

I’m not saying all black men are a threat to white women. I’m saying per capita more black men are more a threat to white women than white men are. Black men are more sexually aggressive than white men. Even if they are not murderers or rapists. Anyone who hasn’t been a woman living amongst black men has no idea.

Aggie said...

If, as in the late 1950's, we came to understand how dangerous it is to violently promote a racial narrative instead of acting on facts, then how come this has become the preferred tactic of the very people who are so proud of placing themselves at the forefront of pointing out this danger?

RBE said...

I agree with Andrew. There have been several horrific crimes that so happened to be black on white. Not sure of the racial motivations but they could have been exploited as such. These horrific crimes have been pitched down the memory hole because they were black on white with no "enduring legacy" attached that gets brought up every few months just to remind us how bad southern white people are.

RideSpaceMountain said...

@RBE

His name was Cannon Hinant.

RideSpaceMountain said...

@RBE

His name was Cannon Hinnant.

Richard Aubrey said...

Cannon Hinant was murdered as.....somebody just went off. No reason, nothing to be gained, no offense by the kid, no money to be stolen, no lack of witnesses, no potential improvement--however unlikely--in the shooter's circumstances.

Yancey Ward said...

My memory of the details of the trial is that her testimony wasn't heard by the jury- the judge did rule it was inadmissible. She testified, under oath, with jury out of the room. I don't remember the reason for her testimony being taken, but it might have been that the defense wanted it on the record for purposes of later appeal if necessary.

Yancey Ward said...

"Tyson had interviewed her, and he said "She said with respect to the physical assault on her, or anything menacing or sexual, that that part isn’t true."

Tyson is probably lying about that recantation. He recorded the interviews with Bryant-Donham, and that one detail isn't on any of those recordings- Tyson has claimed she made the confession while he was changing the tape. So, why not get her to repeat that explosive recantation? I can't think of any rational reason he did not other than the fact that she never said it. A third party was there, Bryant-Donham's daughter-in-law, who says Bryant-Donham never recanted.

I just checked the Wikipedia for Emmett Till, and it has this hilarious sentence:

"Although what happened at the store is a matter of dispute, Till was falsely accused of flirting with, touching, or whistling at Bryant."

I challenge anyone to parse that sentence in a way that it makes any sense whatsoever. The first clause is fine- what happened in the store is a matter of dispute, but then the second clause asserts that Till was falsely accused- a thing that no living person can now know with Bryant-Donham's passing.

Josephbleau said...

We can say that Emmet Till was innocent and blameless, and he was selected as a pure victim of the evil hicks of Mississippi. Or that he was a forward black person who racist white people wanted to kill, or that he sexually harassed a white person, or that he sexually assaulted a white person. I don't think we can know further.

If you have any anger left due to this after 60 years, I suggest you pin it next to some recent examples, let this one fade into the past.

Josephbleau said...

In the 80's there was a Hollywood Indian thing, If you love something, Cherish it, and let it go. I have gotten much relief in life from following this advice.

cassandra lite said...

I think it's largely incorrect to say that his murder, alone, galvanized the CR movement. What galvanized it was Till's mother's astounding decision to open the casket for everyone to see what they'd done to her son. A sickened nation is a more open-minded nation.