Kentucky Christmas parade rescheduled after threats to protesters calling for Emmett Till accuser’s arrest
By Michelle Watson and Amanda Musa, CNN
People in Bowling Green, Kentucky, won’t be deprived of a Christmas parade after all.
The city on Saturday canceled the annual event scheduled for that day after threats against protesters related to the lynching of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a Black boy, in 1955.
On Monday, Mary-John Carmon, chairwoman of the Bowling Green Jaycees Christmas Parade, told CNN that the parade was rescheduled and will take place on Saturday, December 10.
In a video posted over the weekend announcing the cancellation, Police Chief Michael Delaney said at least three groups planned to protest on Saturday at two locations, while Warren County Sheriff Brett Hightower said his office learned of threats late Friday evening “to shoot anyone who is protesting” or assisting protesters.
Police have “not received any information” about whether the protests planned for December 3 will take place this Saturday, Ronnie Ward, a spokesman for the Bowling Green Police Department, told CNN.
The protesters want a Mississippi court to order the arrest of Carolyn Bryant Donham, the White woman now in her late 80s who accused Till of whistling at her in 1955 in Mississippi, according to CNN affiliate WBKO.
Protesters gathered outside an apartment complex in Bowling Green Saturday where Donham is believed to live, calling for justice for Till, WBKO reported.
Till was abducted, tortured, and lynched in a case that drew national attention and helped galvanize the civil rights movement.
Donham was never arrested in connection with Till’s death, but a warrant for her arrest was found earlier this year in a Mississippi courthouse basement. A grand jury in Mississippi declined to indict Donham in August.
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CNN’s Jay Croft, Hannah Sarisohn and Theresa Waldrop contributed to this report.
