--- description: The white woman who accused Emmett Till of harassing her — an accusation that led to his lynching — has admitted to making up the claim title: Woman: Claim That Led to Emmett Till's Lynching Was Not True image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b782dd68c789fff/6988ab38196cf4603003dac7/ap_070228061241.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [U.S.](/section/us/) ## U.S. Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Race](/tag/race/) ## Race Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # White Woman Whose Harassment Claim Led to Emmett Till's Lynching: 'That Part’s Not True'  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 27, 2017 8:12 PM CUT  Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago whose weighted body was found in the Tallahatchie River near the Delta community of Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 31, 1955\. Local residents Roy Bryant, 24, and J.W. Milam, 35, were accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering Till for allegedly whistling at Bryant's wife. The men were later acquitted. The case is one of nearly one hundred unsolved racial killings that has been prosecuted under the FBI's Cold Case Initiative. Emmett Louis Till, a 14-year-old from Chicago whose weighted body was found in the Tallahatchie River near the Delta community of Money, Mississippi, on Aug. 31, 1955\. Local residents Roy Bryant, 24, and J.W. Milam, 35, were accused of kidnapping, torturing and murdering Till for allegedly whistling at Bryant's wife. The men were later acquitted. The case is one of nearly one hundred unsolved racial killings that has been prosecuted under the FBI's Cold Case Initiative.AP  by [Katie Reilly](/author/katie-reilly/)  ## Katie Reilly Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Jan 27, 2017 8:12 PM CUT The white woman who accused [14-year-old Emmett Till](http://time.com/4008545/emmett-till-history/ "undefined") of harassing her — an accusation that led to his brutal 1955 lynching — has admitted to making up the claim. Carolyn Bryant Donham’s accusation was at the center of a lynching that [propelled the civil rights movement](http://time.com/4399793/emmett-till-civil-rights-photography/ "undefined") forward, notably after _Jet_ published a [photo of Till’s lifeless, unrecognizable body](http://100photos.time.com/photos/emmett-till-david-jackson "undefined") with his mother looking on. Till, a black teenager from Chicago, was killed in 1955 while visiting family in Mississippi. He stopped at a country store and reportedly whistled at Donham, though it’s not known if Till really flirted with or whistled at her. At the time, she was married to Roy Bryant, who kidnapped Till days later. Bryant and his half brother, J.W. Milam, beat and shot Till, fastened a metal fan around his neck and threw him into a river. Both Bryant and Milam were quickly acquitted by an all-white jury. During the trial, Donham testified that Till had grabbed and threatened her. “That part’s not true,” Donham told historian Timothy Tyson in 2007 in interviews for his new book, _The Blood of Emmett Till,_ which will be published Jan. 31\. Donham, who is now 82, told Tyson that she could not remember the rest of what happened at the store on that day, [according to _Vanity Fair_](http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/how-author-timothy-tyson-found-the-woman-at-the-center-of-the-emmett-till-case "undefined"). “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him,” she told Tyson, adding that she “felt tender sorrow” for Till’s mother, [_Vanity Fair_ reported](http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2017/01/how-author-timothy-tyson-found-the-woman-at-the-center-of-the-emmett-till-case "undefined"). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4652126/emmett-till-carolyn-bryant-donham/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4652126/emmett-till-carolyn-bryant-donham/"},"headline":"White Woman Whose Harassment Claim Led to Emmett Till's Lynching: 'That Part’s Not True'","datePublished":"2017-01-27T20:12:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T03:00:05.129Z","description":"She made the comments in a 2007 interview with a historian","url":"https://time.com/4652126/emmett-till-carolyn-bryant-donham/","keywords":["Race","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b782dd68c789fff/6988ab38196cf4603003dac7/ap_070228061241.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Katie Reilly","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/katie-reilly/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt6b782dd68c789fff/6988ab38196cf4603003dac7/ap_070228061241.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Cold Killings","caption":"Cold Killings","creditText":"AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/race/","name":"Race"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4652126/emmett-till-carolyn-bryant-donham/","name":"White Woman Whose Harassment Claim Led to Emmett Till's Lynching: 'That Part’s Not True'"}}]}] ```