Carolyn Bryant’s name is not well known. Which is surprising since she was an integral part of one of this country’s most egregious examples of racism. She was the store clerk in Mississippi who sold some chewing gum to 14-year-old Emmett Till. Her husband Roy and his brother were exonerated by an all-white jury for killing Till – only to admit, one year later, that they had in fact killed the young man. Nataki Garrett and Andrea LeBlanc have created The Carolyn Bryant Project to explore what happened in the few minutes of Bryant’s interaction with Till. The show opens at REDCAT on May 17th and runs through May 20th.
Though Till’s tragic story has been depicted before, this unique presentation also imagines what Bryant told her husband that lead him and his brother to kill the teenager.
Photo courtesy of NatakiGarrett.com