Through the 1960s, the criminal penalty for rape in many states was death by hanging or the electric chair. Much like today, getting sentenced was contingent on you making it to court. Then, like today, in or out of court, a woman’s accusation is often all it takes to convict.
From the Scottsboro Boys, to Kill a Mockingbird, from Emmett Till to Amir Locke, historians have focused on Black men being lied on and accused by white women.
Every year 17,000 US Men are murdered. This is four times more than women, and a majority of them are Black. There are no statistics on how many of them have been accused of harming a woman.
If you’d like to see an interesting example of taboo enforcement in action, suggest to the Women and Marxist Children of Black Lives Matter that the Emmett Till story is about false accusations.
The indisputable narrative goes something like this:
“Till had been ‘whistling for his own purposes in the store; Angry white men, heard a white woman was disrespected… tracked Till down, kidnapped, tortured, killed him, threw his body in the river, and an all-white jury found them not guilty, in the racist American South.”
Later variants include, “The angry white men bragged about it later” and “The white lady admitted on her deathbed that she lied to protect herself from her husband’s abusive anger”.
“She is also being ‘lynched’ by the media”
In her book, “More than a Wolf Whistle” Carolyn Bryant says she told the truth about Till.
Timothy B. Tyson interviewed Carolyn Bryant on tape. According to his book, she had told him that she made up the whole story that got Till murdered. After the New York Times ran with that story, Bryant disputed that she’d recanted her testimony she said, “people wanted what happened to him, to happen to her.”
Why would she lie?
From Wikipedia:
An editorial in The New York Times said, regarding Bryant’s admission that portions of her testimony were false: “This admission is a reminder of how black lives were sacrificed to white lies in places like Mississippi. It also raises anew the question of why no one was brought to justice in the most notorious racially motivated murder of the 20th century, despite an extensive investigation by the F.B.I.”[133]
The New York Times quoted Wheeler Parker, a cousin of Till’s, who said: “I was hoping that one day she [Bryant] would admit it, so it matters to me that she did, and it gives me some satisfaction. It’s important for people to understand how the word of a white person against a black person was law, and a lot of black people lost their lives because of it. It really speaks to history, it shows what black people went through in those days.”[3]
Why would he lie?
When pushed for evidence that Bryant had recanted her testimony, Tyson said this portion wasn’t actually on the recording. Instead, he offered his notes from his conversation with her.
I’m not going to say why an author with a book coming out might fabricate a story like this.
I’ll leave that to other historians.
Deborah Watts, Emmett Till’s cousin and co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation from MN, said in US Today, “We never doubted that she lied during her court testimony in 1955.” in her article, “Accuser in the case is still alive and must be brought to justice”
Both men were acquitted in the case after a trial. While Look Magazine printed what is widely reported to be a confession in 1956, one of the men denied involvement in the killing in 1985. This leaves some legal challenges for the prosecution of Carole Bryant.
On Monday, December 6, 2021, Federal Prosecutors closed its federal case because it lacked jurisdiction, and well, systemic racism. The Emmett Till Legacy Foundation has supported several pieces of legislation in recent years.[1][2][3][4][5]
What do we do with this information?
Depending on who you ask, Carolyn Bryant lied, Emmett Till died. Many would also tell you, Victoria Price and Ruby Bates lied, and the Scottsboro Boys all faced the electric chair.
None of these women have ever faced charges over these false accusations.
On the last anniversary of Emmett Till’s death, I asked the women of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation what punishments should be handed to women found guilty of making false accusations.
As of this writing, they have yet to respond.
