'He was terrified': Documents at FSU archives shine new details on Emmett Till lynching

Newly acquired documents related to the 1955 brutal lynching of Emmett Till continue to shine light on initially unreported truths surrounding the young teen's murder.

Documents – including a 33-page, single-spaced research memorandum by journalist William Bradford Huie, who was known for his controversial reporting on Till in a 1956 Look magazine article – revealed that at least eight men were involved in Till's kidnapping, torture and murder.

The once secret and never before publicized papers are now a part of Florida State University's Emmett Till Archives, added by FSU Fannie Lou Hamer Professor of Rhetorical Studies Davis Houck .

"Now that the documents are available, I hope that people will have to rethink what they thought they knew about Till," Houck, who established the Emmett Till Archives at FSU, told the Tallahassee Democrat Thursday.

The new materials are now in the possession and ownership of the university.

"I hope there's a reevaluation of who Emmett Till was," Houck added. "He was a terrified, 14-year-old innocent child who walked into the crosshairs of a raging North-South war."

Till, an African American boy, was kidnapped and murdered in Drew, Mississippi, while visiting family from Chicago, Illinois, in August 1955. He was accused of wolf-whistling at a white woman at a store. She was later identified as Carolyn Bryant Donham. 

Donham identified Till to her then-husband, Roy Bryant, and his half brother, J.W. Milam, who were arrested a day after Till's death — on Aug. 29, 1955 — and accused of the murder. The two white men were defended by lawyer John Whitten Jr.

Although Milam and Bryant were tried for the crime, they were acquitted by an all-white jury in September 1955.

Related news: FSU scholar on Emmett Till case hopeful after recently discovered 1955 arrest warrant

The newly revealed documents were delivered to Houck by Whitten's granddaughter Ellen Whitten in Mississippi in late June in a manila envelope with the writing "M + B, DESTROY" on it since they were to be destroyed by Whitten — who died in 2003 — when he retired from his law practice.

Houck says he first met Whitten more than 20 years ago when she was a senior at Rhodes College in Tennessee, where she wrote a thesis on the Emmett Till case. They remained friends, and aware of the Emmett Till Archives at FSU, Whitten reached out to Houck in the spring about her interest in giving the university her grandfather's papers.

"But she did not want to put them in the mail – she wanted to put them in my hand," Houck told the Democrat in a text message, explaining how they arranged to meet in Sumner, Mississippi, for him to receive the materials.

The papers – which did not become public until almost 70 years later – provide new insights into the Till murder and its aftermath.

In Huie's 1956 article for Look magazine about Till's killers, Milam and Bryant confessed their guilt to Huie following their acquittal.

But Huie's research notes show that he chose to leave out information about additional individuals being involved in Till's murder since it threatened the sale of his story.

A Washington Post article published Wednesday quotes Deborah Watts, Till's cousin and co-founder of the Emmett Till Legacy Foundation : "We knew that they were lying on Emmett. We knew there were many that sought a profit and a payoff from the pain that our family experienced."

What else do the acquired documents reveal about Till's case?

In addition to the critical information about more individuals being involved in Till's murder, Huie's notes also reveal details from an interview he had with Elizabeth Wright, Till's great aunt. Wright and her husband Moses Wright hosted Till during his 1955 visit.

Houck explained that in the documents, Wright said there was a third white man in the house with Milam and Bryant the night of Till's kidnapping. He was identified as Melvin Campbell, who the FBI later confirmed was involved. 

The documents also show that Wright said Till was frightened. Unaware of the full truth about what happened at the store, she told him not to worry.

"Emmett was scared and basically wanted to go home" to Chicago, Houck said. "That's brand new to us, and it casts a whole new light on a whole bunch of different people."

FSU's Special Collections team has digitized the documents to make them accessible to the public.

Houck collaborated with FSU Libraries' Special Collections and Archives to develop the Emmett Till Archives in 2015, which include materials such as newspapers, magazines, oral histories, photographs, government records and creative works that document the Till case and its commemoration.

"With these documents that have been kept in a safe for the better part of almost 70 years, we now know the particulars," Houck said.

To learn more

• The university's Emmett Till Archives are open to the public online at bit.ly/TillDigitalArchives , and more information about FSU Libraries and Special Collections can be found at lib.fsu.edu .

Contact Tarah Jean at  tjean@tallahassee.com  or follow her on X:  @tarahjean_ .

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FSU Emmett Till Archives have new documents about lynching murder