The Woman Who Got Emmett Till Killed Lived a Long Life

Carolyn Bryant Outlived Emmett Till By 68 Years

By Eames Heard — Own work, CC BY 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=69325719

Emmett Till was fourteen when 21-year-old Carolyn Bryant accused him of flirting with her in 1955. Carolyn worked behind the counter of Bryant’s Grocery & Meat Market, owned by her husband, Roy Bryant, in Money, Mississippi. Emmett Till was visiting from Chicago, where he lived. His mother, Mamie, gave him “the talk” about how to behave, warning that social conditions in Mississippi were much different than in Chicago.

Emmett walked to the store with some of his cousins, including Simeon Wright, to buy candy. However, Till went into the store by himself, and there were varying accounts as to what happened next, all provided by Carolyn Bryant. Bryant told her husband that Till “flirted with her.” She later told a jury that Till “grabbed her by the waist and told her he’d been with white women before.” In a 2007 interview, Bryand denied there was any touching saying she “made it up.” She added t…