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Emmett Till investigation closed by feds; no new charges

Emmett Till Church Preservation
Posted at 7:29 PM, Dec 06, 2021
and last updated 2021-12-06 19:29:30-05

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has told relatives of Emmett Till that it is ending its investigation into the 1955 lynching of the Black teenager.

Officials spoke to the family Monday. Till was abducted, tortured, and killed after witnesses said he whistled at a white woman in Mississippi.

The killing galvanized the civil rights movement after Till’s mother insisted on an open casket. Two men who were acquitted by an all-white jury died years ago.

Officials reopened an investigation after a 2017 book quoted Carolyn Bryant Donham as saying she lied when she claimed that Till grabbed her. But Donham told the FBI that she had never recanted her accusation.