Carolyn Bryant believe all women

1. What Timothy Tyson publicly claimed and why it mattered

Timothy Tyson, the Duke historian whose 2017 book The Blood of Emmett Till renewed scrutiny of the case, has said that in an interview he conducted years earlier Carolyn Bryant-Donham told him “That part’s not true,” indicating she had lied about Till’s alleged harassment — a statement Tyson later publicized and which prompted new investigations ^{[1] [4] [5]}.

2. The Justice Department and FBI reviews that followed

The Department of Justice reopened its civil‑rights review after Tyson’s claim, but its Civil Rights Division concluded it could not corroborate a recantation; the FBI interviewed Bryant-Donham and others and reported that a tape or transcript did not contain the alleged recantation and that Bryant-Donham denied ever having recanted when questioned by investigators ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

3. Family, local reporters and gaps in the record

Carolyn Bryant’s family members, including her daughter‑in‑law who accompanied her to some interviews, have disputed Tyson’s account, saying she never recanted and that the explosive quote is missing from tape recordings that exist, leaving a factual gap between Tyson’s public claim and the audio evidence he provided ^{[6] [3]}.

4. Grand jury, memoirs and continuing controversy

A Leflore County grand jury in 2022 declined to indict Bryant-Donham on charges tied to Till’s abduction and murder, with prosecutors citing insufficient evidence to prove criminality — a decision taken amid the conflicting accounts about whether she ever recanted and new material such as an unpublished memoir that itself contains versions of events that complicate the record ^{[4] [7] [8]}.

5. How major outlets framed the disagreement

Major outlets reported the dispute plainly: The New York Times noted DOJ findings that the tape Tyson provided “did not contain any sort of recantation,” while BBC, CNN and others summarized Tyson’s claim and the DOJ/FBI counter‑findings — demonstrating consensus in reporting that the central claim remains unproven rather than conclusively true or false ^{[2] [5] [8]}.

6. What can and cannot be said from available reporting

From the publicly available government memo, news reporting and statements by participants, it can be said that Tyson claimed a recantation, federal investigators say they could not verify it and Bryant-Donham denied recanting when interviewed; beyond that, reporting contains contradictions and missing or disputed audio evidence, so definitive proof either way is absent in the sources provided ^{[1] [2] [3]}.

7. Why the dispute matters beyond a single quote

The question of whether Bryant-Donham recanted matters legally and historically because a verified recantation would directly challenge the original 1955 testimony that helped set in motion Emmett Till’s abduction and murder; the inability of investigators to corroborate the recantation has left calls for further scrutiny from Till’s family and activists, while prosecutors have said the evidentiary threshold for criminal charges was not met ^{[9] [10] [4]}.

8. Bottom line — the sources’ consensus and the unresolved gap

The responsible reading of the available reporting is that a claim of recantation exists (Tyson’s account) but the Department of Justice and the available recordings as reviewed by journalists and investigators do not corroborate that claim, and Bryant-Donham herself denied recanting when interrogated; therefore one cannot assert she definitively “recanted” on the basis of the sourced record ^{[1] [2] [3]}.