Veterans Association of African Descendants Hosts a Community and Panel Discussion: "Let's Talk Till"

INDIANAPOLIS, IN, UNITED STATES, October 24, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- EVENT: Community and Panel Discussion: ‘Let’s Talk Till’

DATE: October 25, 2022 – 6-9pm

LOCATION: Hovey Street Church of Christ – 2338 Hovey Street
Indianapolis, IN

CONTACT: Dave Rozzell – daverozzell@gmail.com

ZOOM: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82975476923?pwd=SmNGNzRjM0xybms2ODRBbXUzOEw0UT09

The Veterans Association of African Descent (VAAD) is inviting the community to come talk about and determine what specific action can be taken to force Mrs. Bryant Donham to stand trial for the kidnapping and murder of an innocent 14-year-old Emmett Till.

“And hardly a moment goes by when I don’t think about Emmett, and the lessons a son can teach a mother.” Mamie Till-Mobley, Death of Innocence: The Story of the Hate Crime that Changed America. The meaning of those words, published in 2003 by Mamie Till-Mobley, the year she passed away, rings as true today as they did when she first expressed them. That was almost 50 years after what an autopsy has shown that her 14-year-old son, Emmett Till, had been shot in the head and brutally beaten. It’s been 67 years since he was kidnapped in Money, Mississippi, August 28, 1955, and his badly mutilated body was four days later found weighted down in the Tallahatchie River. All that because he had been accused of inappropriate behavior toward a white woman, Carolyn Bryant (now Carolyn Bryant Donham).

The Indianapolis Children’s Museum is currently running the display Emmett Till & Mamie Till-Mobley: ‘Let the World See’, and the movie ‘Till’, about the events surrounding what many agree galvanized the Civil Rights Movement in America, will be released later this month. These and other aspects of the events will be discussed during a community conversation entitled “Let’s Talk Till”, to be held Tuesday, August 25, 6-9 p.m., at Hovey Street Church, 2338 Hovey St., in Indianapolis. It features a discussion among confirmed panelists: Dr. Thomas L. Brown, Mrs. Eunice Trotter, Attorney Fatima Johnson, Priscilla Sterling (Emmett Till's cousin), Elder Mmoja Ajabu, and Attorney Malik Z. Shabazz, The Children’s Museum President & CEO, Jennifer Pace Robinson has been invited to send a representative. During this event, hosted by Veterans Association of African Descendants (VAAD), there will be an exclusive sharing of never-before-seen, recent video of Mrs. Bryant Donham, in her current home in Bowling Green, KY.

On August 29, 1955, the day after Emmett’s brutal murder, an arrest warrant was issued naming her along with her then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half-brother J.W. Milam. The two men faced trial on charges of Till’s kidnapping and murder, but they were acquitted by an all-white male jury after a five-day trial, and only 67 minutes of deliberation. According to author Stephen Whitfield, in his book, A Death in the Delta: The Story of Emmett Till, a month after their acquittal, protected against double jeopardy, the two admitted to killing Emmett Till in a Look magazine article. Both are long-since dead.

Although named on the warrant, Bryant-Donham, now 88, was never served nor was she arrested and, therefore, has never been tried for her part in Emmett’s murder. In a 2017 New York Times interview with historian Timothy B. Tyson, a Duke University professor, for a then-soon to be published book, “The Blood of Emmett Till”, he wrote that Emmett’s accuser, admitted the accusation of him touching her and being sexually menacing was “not true.” Yet, she has never been tried to answer for her false accusation that led to Emmett’s vicious murder.

All this in light of a widely reported, recent development in which a Leflore County, MS, grand jury in August this year determined there was “insufficient evidence” to indict her to stand trial on charges of kidnapping nor murder. This calls into question how a grand jury can be convened to weigh evidence and make a ruling before a person is arrested. The attorneys on the panel will address that issue from a legal standpoint. There are some people in this community who join with the Till family and others around the country who strongly disagree with this the grand jury’s ruling and the way it was conducted.

The 14-year-old Till, who was just visiting relatives in Mississippi from Chicago, was accused of a “crime” for whistling at and inappropriately touching a white woman. Even if that did rise to the level of a crime, the fact is that he was never charged nor given the benefit of due process, including a trial by a jury of his peers. In contrast, Mrs. Bryant Donham, although charged in the warrant, was never arrested, nor has been given her day in court, something Till’s family and others have sought for years, and who believe that justice for Emmett will not be had until all involved have faced trial. ###

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCJuUeHsu_4TmybjTkd5aZWQ

Malik Z. Shabazz, Esq
BLACK LAWYERS FOR JUSTICE
+1 301-513-5445
email us here