Emmett Till’s family calls for murder charges against accuser in 1955 lynching

The latest headlines from our reporters across the US sent straight to your inbox each weekday Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US Your briefing on the latest headlines from across the US SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our privacy policy The family of Emmett Till has appealed to Mississippi’s top prosecutor and federal authorities to pursue criminal charges against the woman whose accusations against him led to his 1955 murder, a striking reflection of Jim Crow-era violence that galvanised the Civil Rights movement. Deborah Watts, one of Till’s cousins and a co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation, said the organisation has collected more than 250,000 signatures petitioning for murder charges against Carolyn Bryant Donham, a white woman who accused the Black 14-year-old boy of harassing her in 1955, and among the last-living witnesses to his killing. “The government’s re-investigation found no new evidence suggesting that either the woman or any other living person was involved in Till’s abduction and murder,” the Justice Department said in a statement on 6 December 2021. The Till family’s call to action follows years-in-the-making congressional approval of legislation to designate lynching a federal hate crime under the Emmett Till Anti-Lynch Act, among dozens of bills introduced over the last several decades to officially ban such violence in the US.