Carolyn Bryant Donham, woman who accused lynched teenager Emmett Till, dies aged 88

Oliver Browning
Emmett Till was accused of whistling at Carolyn Bryant Donham. Donham’s husband and a friend then beat Till to death (CHP)

The white woman who accused Black teenager Emmett Till of whistling at and accosting her in Mississippi in 1955 - causing his lynching - has died at 88.

Carolyn Bryant Donham passed away in hospice care on Tuesday night (25 April) in Westlake, Louisiana.

Her death marks the last chance for anyone to be held accountable for the kidnapping and murder that shocked the world and galvanised a generation of activists to rise up in the Civil Rights Movement.

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