New Report Exposes 70+ Modern-Day Lynchings in the South

A century later, a brand new document bears witness to the identical terror – through eurAI

*A brand new report from the civil rights group JULIAN is difficult the long-held perception that lynchings in america ended a long time in the past, documenting greater than 70 such killings within the twenty first century throughout seven Southern states.

The report, titled “A Crimson Document,” serves as a direct follow-up to Ida B. Wells’ pioneering 1895 work, “A Pink Document,” which first cataloged the epidemic of lynching in America. Launched Feb. 18, the brand new investigation examines modern-day lynchings, or MDLs, in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, and Texas since 2000. In complete, it analyzes greater than 150 deadly hate crimes and suspicious deaths throughout that interval focusing on Black, Brown, immigrant, Indigenous, and LGBTQIA+ communities.

“A Crimson Document exposes the long-buried reality about modern-day lynchings, calling these crimes precisely what they’re regardless of systemic makes an attempt to erase and deny them,” mentioned JULIAN founder Jill Collen Jefferson. “Lynching has by no means disappeared — it has tailored, hidden behind silence and indifference.”

In the shadows of sundown towns, terror wears a new mask - via eurAI — Within the shadows of sunset cities, terror wears a brand new masks – through eurAI

Redefining a Legacy of Terror

JULIAN defines a modern-day lynching as a discriminatory killing carried out by multiple particular person for an alleged offense, with or with out authorized trial or due course of. In contrast to a typical hate crime, the intention behind an MDL is to unfold widespread terror to uphold techniques of supremacy, they usually usually contain a component of spectacle.

The report argues that the rationale so few Individuals are conscious of the prevalence of those killings is a deliberate system of obfuscation. Investigators, the report alleges, routinely classify deaths as suicides instantly, shutting down public inquiry. That is adopted by shoddy investigations, defective autopsies and the exclusion of victims’ households. Even when impartial autopsies contradict the official findings, the preliminary designation of suicide may be unimaginable to beat.

New Report Exposes 70+ Modern-Day Lynchings in the South — Households and communities refuse to let their family members be forgotten – through eurAI

New Proof in Troubling Circumstances

The report gained urgency final fall after the dying of Trey Reed, a 25-year-old Black man discovered hanging from a tree on his campus at Delta State College in Mississippi. His dying raised nationwide questions on what number of comparable instances are wrongly categorized.

“A Crimson Document” reveals new proof in a number of such instances by JULIAN’s personal investigations. Amongst them:

In 2021, Leon Hayes was discovered cold and decapitated in his yard. Authorities claimed his small canine had chewed off his head. Nevertheless, an impartial medical expert discovered the reduce separating his head was straight, in line with a pointy object utilized in a swift movement.

In 2018, Willie Andrew Jones Jr., a 21-year-old Black man, was discovered hanging from a tree in Scott County, Mississippi. JULIAN reveals that an impartial medical expert formally decided that Jones had been lynched.

The report additionally highlights a sample in Flowood, Mississippi, adjoining to 2 historic “sunset cities,” the place Black males have disappeared across the similar time each few years. It notes a number of victims, together with Jones, Raynard Johnson and, most lately in 2024, 29-year-old Trevontae Shubert-Helton — who was discovered hanging from a tree in a 90% white city — have been allegedly concerned in relationships with white ladies.

New evidence emerges from cases long closed and silenced - via eurAI — New proof emerges from instances lengthy closed and silenced – through eurAI

A Name for Change

Practically one-third of the deaths examined within the report are of Black transgender ladies, highlighting how these acts of terror goal essentially the most susceptible. JULIAN warns that given the escalation in political division, on-line radicalization and racialized rhetoric; modern-day lynchings are solely anticipated to extend.

“Many would quite confine this violence to historical past books, however that denial is precisely what permits it to proceed,” Jefferson mentioned. “The extraordinary effort to obscure modern-day lynchings — greater than different acts of hate — reveals a deeper worry: that naming them would expose how deeply this violence is rooted in our current.”

The report proposes sweeping reforms, together with new protocols for coroners to differentiate homicides from suicides and the usage of psychological autopsies in suspected MDL instances. It additionally requires strengthening the federal Emmett Until Anti-Lynching Act, which it describes as “toothless.”

In Mississippi, JULIAN has already supported the introduction of a statewide anti-lynching invoice. State Rep. Kabir Karriem, who labored with the group on the laws, mentioned the report ought to function a nationwide name to motion.

“This report sounds a important alarm on the persistence of lynching in Mississippi and throughout the South however make no mistake: this could function a name to motion for the nation at giant,” Karriem mentioned. “It’s the duty of all states to prioritize significant laws.”

The complete “Crimson Document” report and JULIAN’s rising database of instances can be found at julianfreedom.org.