Emmett Till Protestors March Inside Senior Living Facility Demanding Arrest of Woman Behind The Case

Sixty-seven years after the brutal lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a group of protestors is taking action to get the woman behind the case arrested.

On Wednesday, civil rights activists and lawyers gathered at a senior living facility in Raleigh, North Carolina, demanding a decades-old arrest warrant be served to Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman who accused Till of whistling at her at a grocery store in Money, Mississippi, in 1955.

Attorney Malik Shabazz, National President of Black Lawyers for Justice, posting a symbolic eviction notice and subpoena at the last known address of Carolyn Bryant Donham, in Raleigh, NC, calling for her arrest in connection in the death of Emmett Till. #JusticeForEmmettTill pic.twitter.com/7bQZS4GhQQ

— Bob Karp (@BobKarpDR) July 6, 2022

Raleigh police responded to the scene after the protesters started marching inside of the facility, WRAL reports. The protest comes after an arrest warrant for Bryant Donham was recently found inside the basement of the Leflore County Courthouse in Greenwood, Mississippi.

Bryant Donham’s husband at the time, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother, J.W. Milam, were arrested and later acquitted of murdering Till. The two kidnapped Till from his home just days after Bryant Donham made the accusations.

The teen was tortured, beaten, and shot before having a cotton gin tied around his neck with barbed wire and tossed into the Tallahatchie River. Till’s family has been pushing for the warrant to be served.

“You cannot ignore this. That is the reason why the warrant needs to be served, and it will help create change,” Till’s cousin Priscilla Sterling said.

“If this is what’s needed to do for us to change our mindset, our behaviors and attitudes in the society, then this will do it. This will do it. Execute the warrant.”

The protestors say they aren’t letting up until Bryant Donham has been served with the warrant. They strongly believe the now-elderly woman is in hiding with help from the city of Raleigh.

“We searched for her all through Raleigh, North Carolina. We went to the front doors of her doors and her doorstep and they’re hiding her,” attorney Malik Shabazz said.

“She is being hidden. She may even be hidden in this state right now.”

Fourth Circuit District Court of Mississippi District Attorney Dewayne Richardson cited a December report from the U.S. Department of Justice that said no prosecution was possible after the DOJ officially closed Till’s case in December.

“No federal hate crime laws existed in 1955, and the statute of limitations has run on the only civil rights statutes that were in effect at the time,” a DOJ report said