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Carolyn Bryant Donham, the accuser responsible for Emmett Till’s murder, has passed away at the age of 88.

The 88-year-old lady responsible for the 1955 murder of Emmett Till has passed away according to the Calcasieu Parish coroner’s office. Carolyn Bryant Donham was suffering from cancer and was receiving hospice care when she passed away.

Last June, an unsealed arrest warrant for Donham was discovered by a team searching a Mississippi courthouse basement for evidence about Till’s lynching. The arrest warrant was dated August 29, 1955, the day after Till was lynched.

Till relative reacts to death of Carolyn Bryant Donham

Till’s family wanted the arrest warrant to be served, having Donham charged for her role in Till’s murder, but a Mississippi grand jury declined saying there was not sufficient evidence to indict Donham.

“Carolyn’s death does not bring my family closure or justice, because death can never provide justice owed,” Joshua Harris-Till, cousin of Emmett Till, told The Black Wall Street Times.

“Carolyn was simply evidence of the much bigger issue, now the only issue, which is the fact that the justice system is not just. It didn’t care about Emmett 68 years ago and with the release of so many officers who’ve killed unarmed Black and Brown people we’re reminded that it doesn’t care now,” Harris-Till added.

Emmett Till Antilynching Act

Last March, Congress passed the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, officially making lynching a federal hate crime after more than a century of failed proposals.

Bobby Rush, the Illinois Democrat who introduced the measure in the House, stated: “Despite more than 200 attempts to outlaw this heinous form of racial terror at the federal level, it has never before been done. Today, we corrected that historic injustice.”

According to the Equal Justice Initiative, over 4,400 African Americans were lynched in the US between the end of Reconstruction, in the 1870s, and the years of the Second World War. Some lynchings and public executions were watched by barbaric White crowds at picnics, and postcards and souvenirs were even sold.

Mike Creef is a fighter for equality and justice for all. Growing up bi-racial (Jamaican-American) on the east coast allowed him to experience many different cultures and beliefs that helped give him a...