Some of the victims of death by hanging from a tree, 2025-2026, across the United States

Have you heard of this in the news? I had not until a couple of days ago. One would think this would merit consideration as national news, at least moreso than Heidi Klum going topless or the drama in the WNBA. But I was shocked when I heard of these events. And I didn’t even read of it in an article dedicated to the central story, but as the background to a story about Ms Rachel going woke!

What news am I talking about? The fact that several young Black people have been found dead, hanging from trees, all across the country, but especially in the South. And these deaths are not hidden away. These young men and women, including a 16-year-old girl, have been found dead hanging from trees in public spaces. What is more, the police and other local officials are quickly ruling these deaths suicides, in spite of demographic studies that show that Black people are the ethnic group least likely to kill themselves by hanging, in spite of the historical significance in this country of Black people being lynched by hanging them from trees, in spite of families insisting that their loved one was happy and making plans for the future, and even in spite of evidence contravening a ruling of suicide. According to statistics in A Crimson Record, published by the civil rights organization JULIAN, there have been more than 70 suspected lynchings in the U.S. across seven southern states from 2000-2025. Between March 2025 and August 2026, 22 Black people have been found dead under unusual or suspicious circumstances hanging from trees in the United States. That’s not much less than the number of unarmed Black people killed by the police in 2020, thirty-two, which spawned nationwide outrage, and more than the number of unarmed Black people, fifteen, who were killed by police in 2025. Indeed, the number of unarmed Black people being killed by police seems to be declining (depending on how one defines “unarmed”), while the number of Blacks being found dead hanging from trees seems to be on the rise.

Why are the authorities so quick to rule these deaths suicides? Some critics are claiming a “Good Ol’ Boy” bureaucracy is working to save the reputations of the cities in which these people have been found dead. To be sure, the lynching of a Black person in your city isn’t good for business, and it would spark a federal investigation. Who wants that reputation, and who wants that headache? So, even if there’s no evidence to confirm suicide, it seems as long as there’s no evidence to suggest otherwise, the deaths get ruled a suicide. Do they look for evidence, one way or the other? Not necessarily, it appears. Some deaths are ruled a suicide at the scene, within hours of the body being found, thus preventing the site being designated a crime scene and mitigating what questions can be asked and what evidence searched for. Why look for evidence of murder when it’s “obviously” suicide? Yet, at least in some cases, it seems that there was evidence of foul play, at the very least.

Demartravion “Trey” Reed, a freshman at Delta State University in Mississippi, was found hanging from a tree on campus in 2025. His death was quickly ruled a suicide by the office of Dr. Staci Turner, Chief Medical Examiner of Mississippi. But an independent investigation found evidence of blunt force trauma and extensive bruising on Reed’s body. As for Juliana Nzita, a 16-year-old girl found dead hanging from a tree in August 2026, the medical examiner in North Carolina ruled her death a suicide in just three days, and the case was closed despite a full autopsy never being performed, her missing cell phone never being tracked down, and the man who found her body while walking his dog, who offered his time to the police, never being interviewed by them.

There are several disconcerting elements to this story. First, of course, is the horror and tragedy of these lives being cut short, many of them in their prime. Then there is the means of their deaths, hanging from a tree in a public space. This was exactly the M.O. of those who lynched Blacks in the Jim Crow South. The goal was not only to kill one they regarded as an offender, but to do so in such a way as to strike terror in other Blacks who might be having thoughts of getting “uppity,” or challenging the status quo or, yes I’m sure there were some, who decided on a life of crime. Mob justice is more sweet and strikes more terror in the hearts of those who, with little to no provocation, may have become the next “strange fruit.” Then there is the quickness by which the authorities are ruling these deaths suicides. The families of many of these people are protesting, and even suing, the authorities in order to get to what they believe is the truth. They claim their lost loved one never showed signs of depression or suicidal ideation, that they had made plans for the near future, that they were upbeat in spirit and enthusiastic about life, and that it never entered anyone’s mind that their loved one was contemplating suicide.It’s clear that these local authorities have a confict of interest in these cases. Their desire to protect the reputation of their communities trumps the expectation for justice of their families and the larger Black community, as well as all decent civilized people.

But a final disconcerting element of this story is that you likely haven’t heard about it until you read this blog post. Even with civil rights organizations like the NAACP involved in the matter, from the mainstream media it’s largely been crickets. This astounds me. Our mainstream media is usually so quick to pick up on any story that may have a racial element to it, or of creating a racial element if a natural one can’t be found. Why is this story not making national news? Where is the outcry? Where is the pressure put on the authorities in these cities and towns to properly and fully investigate these deaths? For some reason, a White cop shooting to death a Black man who is literally attempting to pummel the cop and steal his gun inspires nationwide riots and a “Don’t shoot!” movement. But the hanging from trees in public spaces of several Black people, deaths that are uncharacteristically ruled a suicide in short order, that doesn’t seem to inspire anything at all. Why is that? Perhaps the Black activists and civil rights leaders are hesitant to cry too loudly about this, or look too deeply into this, because they’re afraid of what they might find. It may be, if these truly are murders and not suicides, that the people responsible are also Black. It may be that those found dead were involved in activities that put them at risk of being “gotten rid of.” We don’t know. And, if things keep going the way they are, we likely never will. And that is not only a shame, but an injustice.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.