Final answer:
Carolyn Bryant's accusations against Emmett Till were exaggerated and later deemed to be part of a 'monstrous lie'. This led to Till's murder and became a pivotal event in the civil rights movement.
Step-by-step explanation:
Did Carolyn Bryant lie about Emmett Till making sexual advances to her under oath? This question is deeply rooted in a tragic and significant incident in American civil rights history. Carolyn Bryant accused Emmett Till, a fourteen-year-old African American boy, of making improper advances towards her in a Mississippi grocery store in 1955. Subsequent accounts suggest that Carolyn Bryant's claims were false. Decades later, documents indicated that Carolyn Bryant had only accused Till of ‘insulting’ her, rather than the more serious charges of physical or sexual assault. Her lawyer's notes stated that she became the voice of a 'monstrous lie.'
This incident led to Till’s brutal murder by Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, which became a catalyst for the civil rights movement. The two men were acquitted of the murder by an all-white jury, despite later admitting to the crime in a magazine article, though they could not be retried due to double jeopardy laws.