Source: Kieth Beauchamp / Till the Movie
A relative of Emmett Till, whose lynching at age 13 remains a haunting story in civil rights history, is suing for the arrest warrant of the white woman who accused him to finally be carried out. The warrant, originally issued in 1955, would prompt the current Mississippi sheriff to act on the arrest of Carolyn Bryant, the woman whose false claim that Till whistled at her led to his murder.
Unsurprisingly, the warrant was never carried out, leaving Carolyn Bryant to receive no consequences for her actual misdeed that led to the death of the 13-year-old. Till’s life and the determination of his mother, Mamie, became pivotal in the fight for racial equality, as her insistence that his casket remain open showed all of America the deep horror of Jim Crow and its role in the deadly torture of her teenage son.
AP News reported the warrant was discovered by researchers last June, and Patricia Sterling, Till’s cousin and a native of Mississippi, intends for it to be served despite how long it has been since its first issuance. This lawsuit by Ms. Sterling, occurred after Mississippi authorities rejected the notion to indict or seek any legal action against Ms. Bryant, despite the uncovering of the misplaced document, according to HuffPost.
Despite Emmett Till’s life being stolen in a grotesque killing that Bryant’s late husband admitted to committing, the accuser herself went on to remarry and now currently lives in North Carolina, being approximately in her late ’80s.
His unjust murder, fueled by white supremacy, still leaves a deep stain on U.S. history, but the loved ones of Emmett Till still hope to ensure that as much justice on behalf of his life can be mustered. This federal suit against the Mississippi law enforcement, specifically the very county where the crime was enacted , may finally grant the legal repercussions against Bryant that, for many, is decades overdue.
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