On Thursday, April 27, various news outlets reported that Carolyn Bryant had died a couple nights before at the age of 88. 

While her name may not immediately ring a bell for most, another name should — Emmett Till. 

Till was a 14-year-old Black boy from Chicago who was kidnapped, brutally beaten, lynched, and murdered after being falsely accused of making comments toward a white woman at a store in Mississippi in 1955.  

Carolyn Bryant was the white woman who falsely accused Till. 

Roy Bryant — her husband — and his half-brother J.W. Milam were the individuals charged and later acquitted by an all-white jury for his murder. 

Despite Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam both later confessing to the murder, and Carolyn Bryant later admitting that her accusation against Till was not true, no one was ever held accountable for Till’s murder. 

After his body was found and brought back to Chicago, Till’s mother, Mamie, insisted on having an open-casket funeral for her son. The visual of his brutalized body sent shockwaves as the image was disseminated in newspapers across the country. 

On many fronts, that tragedy became among the main catalysts of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States.  

When I came across the news of Carolyn Bryant’s death earlier today, a wave of emotions went through my mind. 

I reflected back to the first time I learned about Emmett Till during a middle school social studies class. 

A few years younger than Till himself at the time, I couldn’t fully grasp just how unjust the situation was. I was familiar with the terms discrimination, racism, segregation, but learning about the Till tragedy showed me that age was no hindrance to those concepts. 

Fast forward to nearly 20 years after first learning about Till, and many other Black boys and men who have been unjustifiably murdered since, it’s clear that this issue still permeates our society. 

It is also clear that just like I had to learn about the Till tragedy in school, it’s important for children in the K-12 education system now to learn it, as well. 

This is a part of American history that should not be hidden. On the contrary, it should be taught and discussed at length. 

Why? Because it’s the truth. 

Had Till not been murdered, he would be turning 82 years old later this year. Bryant, on the other hand, died this week at 88.

While Bryant was afforded the privilege of living a full life — living more than 25 years longer than the life expectancy for women born in the 1930s as she was — Till’s life was violently ripped away from him before he was legally able to drive. 

It’s unfortunate, unfair, and unjust.