Here’s the thing about justice: it’s rare that people of color ever get to see it in action because it usually doesn’t work in our favor. What’s even more frustrating and disheartening is when said justice comes over 60 years later and everyone involved, but one person, is dead.
Such may be the case for Emmett Till. He’s dead and gone after a brutal lynching in 1955 that stole his young black life, way too soon. The men responsible for his death, J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant, got off without even a slap on the wrist because in the Jim Crow south, Till was the criminal. Allegedly, Till whistled at Bryant’s wife, Carolyn Bryant Donham, which motivated her husband and his half brother to torture and kill 14-year-old Till.
Now, some 60 plus years later, the U.S. Department of Justice has reactivated Till’s case, unearthing “new information.” However, the department hasn’t specified why they’ve opened the case back up. Many people of color, namely Black Twitter, think that Carolyn’s too little too late confession that she was a lying ass liar when she testified in court, making claims that Till assaulted her, has something to do with the case being reactivated.
Someone needs to pay for what was done to Emmett Till. Carolyn is the last one standing, at 84-years-old. Should it be her?