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Shocking new information has been revealed about Carolyn Bryant Donham’s point of view amid an increased demand for her arrest in connection to the kidnapping and murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till.
Donham’s 100-page unpublished memoir titled “I Am More Than A Wolf Whistle” was leaked to the public on July 14.
The never before seen memoir is a story of tragedy — but not one of thorough confession, self-accountability, or guilt.
The memoir highlights Donham’s accounts leading up to her using her status as a white woman in 1955 Mississippi to falsely accuse a young Black male, Till, of whistling at her and making sexual advances.
The document also shared insight on Donham’s ignorance and detached attitude toward the aftermath her role in Till’s murder has on his family and generations of Black people.
NewsOne, which exclusively obtained the memoir, detailed that Donham dictated the memoir’s content to her daughter-in-law in 2008 and 2009.
Now 88, the women’s whereabouts remain unknown.
Still, a recently discovered unserved warrant from 1955 has renewed public interest in locating Donham so she can be arrested and charged.
“I Am More Than A Wolf Whistle”
Donham describes her Southern youth in the 1930s and 1940s in the first portion of the book.
Riddled with patronizing attitudes toward the Black people she encountered and her confrontations with the realities of the profoundly racist Jim Crow South, Donham aimed to disapprove she’s a racist.
Still, her account of what took place on August 24, 1955 between her and Till only furthered the memoir’s truth — that Donham’s inherent and internalized racism and privilege never fell from the forefront of her life.
Recounting that day, she described when the 14-year-old child walked into the store of her then-husband Roy Bryant’s family.
“The door opened and a young black man, who appeared to me to be in his late teens or early twenties entered the store,” said Donham.
After recalling him asking for candy, Donham alleges Till grabbed her hand, cornered her, and grabbed her by the hips.
She claimed Till said, “What’s the matter, baby? Can’t you take it? You needn’t be afraid of me, I’ve f—ked white women before.”
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In subsequent chapters, Donham detailed the risen tensions between her and her husband due to her allegedly inappropriate encounter with Till.
Her description of the ensuing events included Till’s kidnapping and the discovery of the child’s brutally murdered body.
It also shared her problematic feelings towards “the arrests of her husband and his half-brother, her awareness of a warrant for her arrest and the stress of constantly moving around to escape harassment,” NewsOne detailed.
On the last page of the memoir, Donham writes, “I always felt like a victim as well as Emmett. He came in our store and put his hands on me with no provocation. Do I think he should have been killed for doing that? Absolutely, unequivocally, no! Did we both pay a price for it, yes, we did. He paid dearly with the loss [of] his life. I paid dearly with an altered life.”
Read more on Carolyn Bryant Donham’s unpublished memoir via NewsOne.
