Cooper picks SBI director w/ baggage, Emmett Till accuser passes away

No. 17 — Apr. 23-Apr. 29, 2023

Governor Cooper’s pick for SBI director played lead role in shutting down “non-essential” protest in 2020

In the midst of the ongoing drama between the current State Bureau of Investigation director and governor’s office, Cooper has appointed State Capitol Police Chief Roger “Chip” Hawley as the next director of the SBI. Under current state law, Hawley’s appointment to the six year term must be approved by the General Assembly.

Hawley was also Chief of the State Capitol Police in April of 2020, when he played a leading role in shutting down the first Reopen NC protest under the claim that “protesting is a non-essential activity”. Although Raleigh Police provided most of the manpower for dispersing the peaceful protest, Hawley was in the parking lot giving directions to the officers as they cleared the protesters and arrested Monica Ussery. Hawley was also named as a witness in the official incident report for Ussery’s arrest, which was officially made by his subordinate Officer Derick Proctor. Both Hawley and Proctor were named as defendants in the civil rights lawsuit Ussery filed last week:

In related news, Ussery’s contempt of court hearing scheduled for this week was delayed.

Carolyn Bryant Donham dies at 88

Carolyn Bryant Donham passed away this week in Louisiana. Although she lived a long life, Donham is most widely known for her 1955 accusations against Emmett Till, which resulted in Till being “lynched” by Donham’s husband and his half-brother. Although the incident is often characterized as the 14-year old Till merely “wolf-whistling” at Donham, the consistent story Donham gave, both in her testimony in 1955 and a draft of her memoir late in life, is that Till forcefully grabbed both her arm and her waist, making sexually suggestive comments as she tried to escape and retrieve a firearm for her personal defense.

Part of the misinformation is due to an almost certainly false claim made by local author and activist Timothy Tyson that Donham had admitted her allegations against Till were false. Tyson explained away the fact that this shocking admission was not included in the audio recording of the 2008 interview by claiming that Donham made the statement while he was still setting up. However, he did not follow up on the “bombshell” admission while he was recording, and the other witness in the room, Donham’s daughter-in-law, denied that Donham made any such admission. The FBI even reopened an investigation based on Tyson’s claim, but they closed it without any charges; according to the AP: “Officials also said that historian Timothy B. Tyson…was unable to produce any recordings or transcripts in which Donham allegedly admitted to lying about her encounter with the teen.”

So what really happened in that grocery store in 1955? We’ll never know for sure, but that hasn’t stopped the mainstream media from using the Emmett Till story to continue to push the racial narrative they adhere to.

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