Four days later, the 14-year-old black boy was lynched by her relatives in one of the most iconic cases of racial injustice in America’s civil rights era.
Sixty-seven years later, the Till family is now seeking the arrest of the woman, Carolyn Bryant Donham, after rediscovering a warrant against her in the dusty counties of Lefore County.
Mrs. Donham, who was 21 when she was charged, is now 88. According to the old warrant, she was involved in Till’s abduction.
Despite two failed relaunches over the past 20 years, Till’s cousin Deborah Watts and her daughter Terry have been searching for evidence that they hoped to see someone jailed for the murder.
They knew that the warrant against Mrs Bryant Donham existed because it was made public at the time of the murder, although it was not acted upon.
But Leflore County archives have no indexing system other than sorting documents into labeled boxes every decade, leaving them a monumental task to find.
“Serve it and charge it”
Ms. Watts and her assistants, members of the Emmett Till Foundation, which she heads, were able to limit the search to boxes related to the ’50s and’ 60s, but that was it. Finally, after years of systematic investigation, one of the boxes gave exactly what they were looking for: the warrant accusing Mrs. Bryant Donham of kidnapping. The county official, who certified the warrant as genuine, said the team was “lucky” in its search. “Serve it and charge it,” said Teri Watts.
