BIOGRAPHY AND WIKIPEDIA: Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, has died at 88

Carolyn Bryant Donham, the white woman whose accusation set off the lynching of Emmett Till nearly 70 years ago, has died at 88.

The white woman at the center of the Emmett Till saga, Carolyn Bryant Donham, has died.

Megan LeBoeuf, chief investigator for the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office, confirmed Donham’s death. The 88-year-old was suffering from cancer and was receiving end-of-life hospice care.

Devery Anderson, the author of “Emmett Till: The Murder That Shocked the World and Propelled the Civil Rights Movement,” said Donham’s death marks the end of a chapter.

Some people “have been clinging to hope that she could be prosecuted. She was the last remaining person who had any involvement,” he said. “Now that can’t happen.”

For many, “it’s going to be a wound, because justice was never done,” he said. “Some others were clinging to hope she might still talk or tell the truth. … Now it’s over.”

“Carolyn Bryant’s death brings a conclusion to a painful chapter for the Emmett Till family and for Black peoples in America. The tragic part about Bryant’s death was that she was never held accountable for her role in the death of young Emmett Till, who is the martyr for the Civil Rights Movement,” the statement reads.

In August 1955, 14-year-old Emmett was beaten and shot to death after he allegedly whistled at Bryant — now Donham — in Money.

Later, her husband, Roy Bryant, and J.W. Milam, took Emmett from his bed and ordered him into the back of a pickup truck and beat him before shooting him in the head and tossing his body into the Tallahatchie River. They were both acquitted of murder by an all-White jury following a trial in which Carolyn Bryant testified that Emmett grabbed and verbally threatened her.

Milam, who died in 1980, and Bryant, who died in 1994, admitted to the killing in a 1956 interview with Look magazine. Evidence indicates a woman identified Till to Donham’s then-husband Roy Bryant and his half-brother J.W. Milam, who killed the teenager. An all-white jury acquitted the two white men in the killing, but the men later confessed in an interview with Look magazine.

When Till disappeared in Mississippi, Ollie Gordon — one of Till’s cousins — was 7 years old and living in the Chicago home with Till’s mother and family. Gordon told The Associated Press on Thursday that in the days after he went missing, the home was full of fear, because people knew there was a strong likelihood he had been killed.

Gordon said she had mixed emotions about Donham’s death. Parker is the last living witness to Till’s abduction. He has said in interviews and speeches that he heard Till whistle at the woman working behind the counter at Bryant’s Grocery and Meat Market.

Days later, Parker saw men kidnap Till in the dark of night from their uncle’s home in Mississippi, where the teenagers were staying. Parker said Thursday that his heart goes out to Donham.

“As a person of faith for more than 60 years, I recognize that any loss of life is tragic and don’t have any ill will or animosity toward her,” Parker said in a statement. “Even though no one now will be held to account for the death of my cousin and best friend, it is up to all of us to be accountable to the challenges we still face in overcoming racial injustice.”