One year after the publication of Timothy B. Tyson's The Blood of Emmett Till, the federal investigation into the murder of the 14-year-old black child at the hands of two white men has been reopened.
Thursday, the Associated Pressreported that, back in March of this year, the Justice Department revealed the reopening to Congress in a report and cited "new information." Exactly what that information is was not disclosed. In last year's The Blood of Emmett Till, however, it was discovered that Carolyn Donham had lied when she testified that Emmett Till harassed her with "verbal and physical advances" at a store in Mississippi in 1955. "That part's not true," Donham was revealed as admitting.
Thanks to Donham's falsified testimony, Till was abducted and mutilated before being fatally shot and dumped in the Tallahatchie River. Though white men J.W. Milam and Roy Bryant were ultimately acquitted by an all-white jury, they later confessed to brutally murdering Till in a Look magazine interview. "I like n***** — in their place — I know how to work 'em," Milam said at the time. "But I just decided it was time a few people got put on notice. As long as I live and can do anything about it, n*****s are gonna stay in their place."
The report to Congress in March was sent as part of an annual update to lawmakers made possible due to a law bearing Till's name. The Justice Department, perAP, has not commented on the reopening of the investigation.
