A Series of Hanging Deaths Has Black Families Demanding Answers

Alecia Taylor & Dalila-Johari Paul, CapitalB

A Kentucky family still awaits answers to what happened to a young mother of four in Mississippi. A teenage immigrant is reported missing in North Carolina and is found dead 11 days later. A young man traveled to a music festival in Michigan and was found dead on a trail. In separate incidents, families were left with few details after the deaths of two 21-year-olds in Georgia.

From the Deep South to the Midwest, there have been at least 10 reports of Black people found dead hanging from trees in the past year. In some instances, police have not indicated whether they suspect foul play. In other cases, the deaths have been ruled a suicide.

The suspicious circumstances of a loved one’s death and the response from authorities have left many Black families and observers questioning the investigations. For some, people found dead hanging from trees are a reminder of the thousands of Black people lynched in America and the cover-ups that often followed.

Law enforcement’s disproportionately low rate of closing a homicide investigation when the victim is Black versus white also makes it hard to take the police’s preliminary reports at face value, a psychologist and a sociologist told Capital B.

Read the full article here.

Watch a short video about the long history of Terror Lynching in the USA.

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