Injustice Files: Modern Day Lynching in the United States?

Last night after I returned from my Zumba class, I was ready to shower, cuddle up in the bed next to my husband, and watch something new and interesting on my favorite channel—Investigation Discovery. I was not expecting to witness this new show, however. It left me tossing and turning for a while before I finally drifted off to sleep.

This show is called, The Injustice Files: At the End of a Rope from filmmaker, Keith Beauchamp who also documented the killing of Emmett Till. He is an African-American who takes time to investigate the possibility that lynching still occurs in the United States. He looks into four cases of African-American men who were found hanging from trees near their homes in Mississippi (my husband’s home state) and Georgia, both southern states known for racially motivated crimes such as lynching. Lynching involves hanging Blacks from trees until they can no longer breathe.

With the help of experts in psychiatry and the forensic sciences, Keith tries to help the families determine whether their loved ones took their own lives or were victims of murder.

The reason I tossed and turned all night after watching this show is because I was stunned by the dates in which these cases happened. I was expecting for them to report days from back in earlier history. But, when I heard the years 2000 and 2003 I was floored.

That wasn’t too long ago.

During the course of this show, it was immediately evident that improper investigations and procedures were done regarding these cases of young men who just so happened to have had relationships with White girls. The sheriffs in Mississippi treated the families and witnesses as if they were suspects instead of victims. They didn’t take proper precautions to maintain evidence or the crime scenes for further investigation. There were even White witnesses who came forward with suspicious activity but were later derailed literally and forced to relocate.

Which makes it clear to me; they never intended to follow up on these theoretical cases of suicide.

One of the victim’s fathers stated, “Black men lynching themselves…that’s unheard of. This wasn’t a suicide.” One mother also said that she is confident that her son did not kill himself. It was most certainly foul play. There was even a supposed suicide note from one of the men, that his sister declared was not his handwriting. However, the investigating officer became irate and insisted that this boy had indeed killed himself.

Check this video out:

Does this come as a surprise to you that racially-motivated crimes are still occurring here in the United States years after the civil rights movement? Do you feel that racism and hate crimes are still popular in the south, only to be covered by the criminal justice system?