Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman whose accusation set off Emmett Till’s lynching, has died, coroner says

Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman whose accusation set off Emmett Till’s lynching, died on Tuesday, the coroner for the Parish of Calcasieu in Louisiana confirmed to CBS News.

Donham, who lived in Westlake, Louisiana, died at 11:59 p.m. in her home, coroner Terry Welke confirmed in a fact-of-death letter. She was 88 years old, the coroner said. 

Known as a key figure in Emmett Till’s lynching, Donham wrote in an unpublished manuscript obtained by the Associated Press she “tried to help the youth by denying it was him.” 

Men brought the 14-year-old to her house in the middle of the night after she accused the teen of grabbing her while she worked alone in her family store in Money, Mississippi.  

Till was visiting relatives in Mississippi from Chicago when he was accused, abducted and lynched for this interaction. His disfigured body was found in a river days later. When his mother Mamie Till Mobley buried her son in Chicago, she decided to open the casket fueling the nascent civil rights movement. 

In 2022, a grand jury in Mississippi declined to prosecute Donham for her role in the events that led to Till’s lynching.

CBS News has reached out to Emmet Till Legacy Foundation for comment.