With Emmett Till murder back in the news, these books and documentaries are essential

Brooke Cain

In August 1955, a Sumner, Mississippi woman named Carolyn Bryant claimed that 14-year-old Emmett Till threatened her and whistled at her in her husband’s grocery store, resulting in a group of white men that included Bryant’s husband kidnapping, bludgeoning and shooting the child to death.

In the original trial in September 1955, two white men — Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam — were acquitted by an all-white jury. Two months later, they sold their story to “Look” magazine and confessed to the crime.

Till’s murder, along with the acquittal of his killers and their subsequent boasting, helped spur the civil rights movement.

The woman whose accusations meant a death sentence for the young Black boy, reportedly admitted years later that she didn’t tell the truth about what happened. Carolyn Bryant Donham, now 87, was last known to live in Raleigh. An old arrest warrant charging Donham with kidnapping was recently discovered in Mississippi, fueling demands that she be arrested. The news has reignited interest in Till’s murder.

Many books have been written about the murder, and many documentaries have been made. This list is just a starting point, but here are a few of the best that we think are worth checking out.

Books about the murder of Emmett Till

▪ “The Blood of Emmett Till” by Timothy Tyson contains the interview with Carolyn Bryant Donham in which she reportedly admits that her accusations about Till’s comments and physical advances were “not true.” Tyson, a North Carolina native, says Donham approached him and offered the interview while she was writing her memoir.

Tyson’s book, published by Simon & Schuster in 2017, won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award and was a finalist for the National Book Award. His previous book, “Blood Done Sign My Name,” was also a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award.

▪ “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement” by Devery S. Anderson is considered a comprehensive and definitive examination of Till’s murder, the 1955 trial and the 2004-2007 FBI investigation into the case.

Anderson had access to trial transcripts, long-hidden depositions given by key figures and interviews Carolyn Bryant gave to the FBI in 2004. He also interviewed family members of the killers. The book was published in 2015 by the University Press of Mississippi.

In this Sept. 23, 1955, file photo, J.W. Milam, left, his wife, second from left, Roy Bryant, far right, and his wife, Carolyn Bryant, sit together in a courtroom in Sumner, Miss. Bryant and his half-brother Milam were charged with murder but acquitted in the kidnapping and torture slaying of 14-year-old black teen Emmett Till in 1955 after he allegedly whistled at Carolyn Bryant. A team searching the basement of a Mississippi courthouse for evidence about the lynching of Black teenager Emmett Till has found the unserved warrant in June 2022 charging a white woman in his kidnapping in 1955, and relatives of the victim want authorities to finally arrest her nearly 70 years later.

Documentaries about Emmett Till

▪ “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,” released in 2005 and directed by Keith Beauchamp, is credited with being a catalyst for Till’s murder case being reopened by the US Department of Justice. Beauchamp began his research in the 1990s and his film asserts that 14 people were involved in Till’s murder — including the white men responsible for the murder, their employees and the woman (Carolyn Bryant Donham) who claimed Till whistled at her.

It features old TV and newsreel footage and interviews with Till’s young cousins, who were present the night the white men came and took him away. There is also footage of Till’s mother, Mamie Till, talking about her son’s life and his death.

How to watch: The film is listed as being available to stream through Kanopy. According to the Kanopy website, you can use your public library card to register and watch for free (at kanopy.com/en/product/11004003.) You can also add the Kanopy channel for free to a Roku streaming device.

▪ “The Murder of Emmett Till” is a 2003 PBS American Experience documentary directed by Stanley Nelson and narrated by Andre Braugher. It uses archival film footage and photos along with interviews to tell Till’s story.

How to watch: You can watch online at pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/till

▪ “Let the World See” is a 2022 docuseries that chronicles Mamie Till-Mobley’s fight to bring her son’s body home to Chicago and her decision to have an open-casket funeral so that the public could see the brutality of his murder: “Let the people see what I’ve seen,” she told the funeral director. A photo of Emmett Till in his casket, which first ran in Jet magazine, is said to have changed the course of the civil rights movement. The documentary series also traces her journey back to the Jim Crow South to face her son’s murderers in court.

How to watch: abc.com/shows/let-the-world-see

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