Black people found hanging from Southern trees is not a phenomenon confined to historical narratives. Indeed, at least twenty-two individuals fitting this description died within the past year and a half, according to BLM Georgia, an independent group. In most of these cases, authorities quickly ruled the deaths suicides, even when family and community members expressed concerns about foul play. Since Black Americans are the least likely to die from suffocation, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, frequent reports of Black people found hanging from trees and other fixtures have reopened old wounds.
Consider, for instance, the case of Dennoriss Richardson, a 29-year-old Black man found hanging in an abandoned Alabama apartment in December 2024. Two autopsies, one conducted by state officials and the other by private experts, produced different conclusions. While both agreed the father of five died due to “asphyxia secondary to neck compression,” a finding consistent with hanging, neither could dispel the lingering doubt surrounding the case. Yet while the initial autopsy claimed this was a suicide, Dr. Adel Shaker, the forensic pathologist who handled the private autopsy, noted that “a thorough and meticulous investigation should be carried out to rule out staged suicide.”
Leigh Richardson, the wife of Dennoriss Richardson, does not believe he killed himself and has criticized the sheriff’s department for not conducting a thorough investigation. Part of her suspicion is tied to the harassment her late husband endured. For example, Leigh noted that officers detained him in the Sheffield City jail in 2022, strapped him into a chair so he couldn’t move, beat him, sprayed him with tear gas, tased him, and denied him medical treatment. After this incident, Richardson filed a federal lawsuit against those who violated his rights, and as a result, she suspects he faced retaliation from jaded officers.
News of Richardson’s death is like salt in the wound within the black community. To understand why, you have to know a little of our country’s history. Members of the Ku Klux Klan and other white supremacist groups lynched thousands of Black people, often leaving their mutilated bodies to terrorize survivors. White people, confident they wouldn’t face consequences for widespread violence, circulated photographs of the deceased, using these images for postcards. They kept pieces of clothing, body parts, and threads from the rope as souvenirs. While the public spectacle style of lynching is in the past, hate crimes persist.
In the Crimson Record, a 2025 report published by JULIAN, Jill Collen Jefferson, a civil and human rights attorney and researcher, noted that modern-day lynchings cannot be dismissed as “historical echoes; they are living patterns of impunity that reveal how America’s oldest form of racial violence has adapted to new conditions. They thrive in silence — in the gaps between coroner’s reports and truth, between official explanations and the lived experiences of grieving families. What was once a public ritual of white supremacy has become a quieter machinery of neglect, operating through misclassification, inadequate investigation.”
The sudden death of an individual is a tragedy for their friends, family, and community. But the secondary stress and sorrow many feel after learning about a case in which a Black person was found hanging, especially in the South, stem from systemic racism, which has tainted the well of public trust. The failure of government officials to thoroughly investigate cases in which Black people are victims injects scrutiny into public perception of official reports. And in a nation where Black people are approximately three times as likely to be killed by the police as White people and more likely to endure hate crimes than other groups, doubt is rational and warranted.
Many have scolded members of the black community who suspect foul play in cases where a Black person is found hanging. They argue that we should wait for all the evidence and avoid jumping to conclusions. While this may be true in the abstract, it can come off as dismissive given the role racism plays in fermenting suspicion like a well-made brine. The mistreatment of Black victims within the criminal justice system causes many to doubt the official accounts. Nevertheless, it is reasonable to ask questions and express dissatisfaction when information is withheld from family members or when investigations fail to provide answers in a timely manner.Black people have a right to information about their deceased loved ones. It’s a matter of dignity and public safety.
A thorough investigation into the circumstances surrounding a Black person’s death could facilitate healing and closure for their family and community. Of course, this would require them to have access to funding, along with the full cooperation of law enforcement agencies and the coroner’s office, a tall order given that Black people are more likely to be impoverished and thus lack the funds needed to launch a private investigation. Another problem is that officials routinely dismiss these concerns, leaving many feeling silenced or overlooked. Nevertheless, this is a worthy goal, and one that mirrors the strategies adopted by anti-lynching advocate Ida B. Wells and others who exposed extrajudicial killings.
While someone doesn’t have to be diagnosed with mental illness to commit suicide, and Black people are capable of self-harm, the doubt expressed by the black community following hangings is a natural response to unchecked racism. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to facilitate trust in an environment where racism is systemic, where a group of people faces mistreatment due to the color of their skin, the texture of their hair, where even uttering the phrase “Black Lives Matter” is seen as a radical statement, to be challenged rather than accepted. The deaths of Black people, especially those found hanging from trees in the South, are opening old wounds, triggering a discussion about whether we can ever feel wholly safe in a nation that refuses to acknowledge modern-day racism.