On August 28, 1955, a 14-year-old black teenager named Emmett Till was lynched and murdered in Money, Mississippi, after he reportedly whistled at a white woman in a store. Despite the fact that two white men were charged, and later acquitted, no one was ever convicted in his death. Years later, those same men confessed to the crime in a newspaper interview. Till’s death is largely considered one of the events that helped galvanize the civil rights movement. And his mother’s choice to hold a public funeral with an open casket brought global attention to the brutal realities of racism in the American South.
Now, nearly 63 years later, the Justice Department has announced that it has reopened the investigation into Till’s death citing that it has received new information. This is significant—especially because the case had been officially closed in 2007 because, as authorities noted, the suspects (aka admitted killers) were already dead. Thus, a grand jury failed to file new charges.
No one knows what the new information is and the government has not yet made it public.
However, this news comes on the heels of a book that was published last year by Timothy B. Tyson entitled The Blood of Emmett Till. In it, Tyson quotes Carolyn Donham, the white woman at whom Till reportedly whistled. The quote is from a 2008 interview in which Donham admits she lied about what happened. Apparently, after five decades, Donham felt bad that her false testimony about being accosted and lewd sexual advances toward her cost Till his life. According to Tyson’s book, she reportedly said, “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him.” It’s too bad, she didn’t have a conscience back in 1955 when Till’s brutal murder could have been prevented.
At any rate, Till’s family continues to press the Justice Department for answers. It was his relatives who pushed Attorney General Jeff Sessions to reopen the case after Tyson’s book came out. Though it’s hard to believe that Jeff Session will ever do the right thing, especially when it comes to civil rights, there is something positive that could potentially come from this. This week, Alabama Senator Doug Jones (D) also introduced legislation that would require the government to release information on unsolved killings related to the civil rights movement. It won’t change the past. And it would be up to certain law enforcement agencies to decide what material gets released.
But, in this day and age, even the smallest of bright spots offer hope. And it could open the door to greater truth and transparency about America’s civil rights history. Remember, it was only one year ago that vandals destroyed the marker in Mississippi that memorialized Till. We still have a long way to go when it comes to admitting and dealing with our racist past. Each opportunity that forces us to look honestly at our ugly and brutal legacy of race relations offers a chance at healing and reconciliation.