The accuser "confessed that she had fabricated the most sensational part of her testimony. 'That part’s not true,' she told Tyson, about her claim that Till had made verbal and physical advances on her.
...
“She was glad things had changed [and she] thought the old system of white supremacy was wrong, though she had more or less taken it as normal at the time.” She didn’t officially repent; she was not the type to join any racial reconciliation groups or to make an appearance at the new Emmett Till Interpretive Center, which attempts to promote understanding of the past and point a way forward.
But as Carolyn became reflective in Timothy Tyson’s presence, wistfully volunteering, “Nothing that boy did could ever justify what happened to him.” She also admitted she “felt tender sorrow,” Tyson would note, “for Mamie Till-Mobley”—Emmett Till’s mother, who died in 2003 after a lifetime spent crusading for civil rights.
...
However meaningful an appearance Carolyn Bryant Donham makes in Tyson’s book, she has receded into her private life. This is unfortunate. Her changed attitude, if genuine, might have real meaning today, what with a polarized electorate, renewed racial tensions, and organizations and Web sites promoting white supremacy."
SHEILA WELLER, Vanity Fair
Source date:
Jan 26 2017 (all day)