Nu OriginsA Black Man’s Practical Response to Black Lynchings and Racist Policies
By W. Wint, UNIA-ACL New York Division
When a Black person is found hanging from a tree, much of America sees a private tragedy, a suicide, a case to close by morning. We see history with a fresh face.
I have children. I have already had to sit them down and talk about how to stay alive in ordinary places: a traffic stop, a gas station. No parent should ever have to give that talk.
They are turning up in trees again, and we are told to call it suicide. I will not.
Understand what I am looking at. This is a continued reign of terror, and it is uniquely American. The Equal Justice Initiative documents 4,084 racial terror lynchings in twelve Southern states between 1877 and 1950, more than 300 in other states, and nearly 2,000 more Black Americans killed during Reconstruction. Those were public murders committed by white mobs, and almost no one ever paid for them. No other country on earth built this machine. I do not believe it was ever truly dismantled, only made quieter.
Because look at the pattern now:
- Javion Magee, Henderson, NC (2024). Found hanging and ruled suicide; his family said the ruling came too fast and demanded an independent autopsy.
- Dennoriss Richardson, Colbert County, AL (2024). Found hanging; his family rejected the suicide finding and retained counsel.
- Demartravion “Trey” Reed, Delta State University, MS (2025). Found hanging on campus; his family and Rep. Bennie Thompson demanded a federal investigation.
- Tasia Fortune, Jackson, MS (2026). A mother of four found hanging from a tree; her own mother says she was not suicidal.
- To’Nea Miller, Miami, FL (2026). Found hanging; her family disputes the ruling.
- Kyle Bassinga, Marietta, GA (2026). Found hanging; advocates are still demanding answers.
- Nolan Wells, Jackson County, MS (2026). An 18-year-old who vanished on a boat trip with three white companions and was found dead days later; authorities called it a drowning with no foul play, but his family, represented by attorney Ben Crump, rejects that and points to an athletic swimmer, deleted messages, and stories that do not line up.
Same script every time: a Black life lost in circumstances that do not add up, a verdict reached in hours, a family told to grieve quietly. As a father, I cannot make myself believe that is coincidence. It looks organized to me. It looks coordinated. It is happening in the very season they are cutting our jobs, gutting the programs that gave our children a fair shot, and telling us to be grateful for the scraps. Strip a people of their livelihood with one hand and their sense of safety with the other, and you have not created two problems. You have created one war, waged in a more gruesome form than the marches I grew up hearing about.
White America has never been safe since the day the invaders landed. In 2023 alone, anti-Black hate crimes were the single largest category of racial hate crime in the country, more than half of all race-based incidents and over three times the next group, according to the FBI’s own tally. That is not my grievance talking. That is the government’s own record.
The contempt does not even end at death. In Alabama, families of Black men who died in state custody have buried their sons only to learn the bodies came back with organs missing. Brandon Dotson, 43, was returned from Ventress Correctional Facility without his heart. The family of Charles Edward Singleton says his remains were handed over with no internal organs at all. Their attorney calls it a pattern; the lawsuits call it grave robbery and mutilation. So when someone asks me why we will not simply trust the system, I point here. A system that will not even return our dead whole has not earned the benefit of the doubt.
Understand how these threads connect. The rope, the rushed ruling, the body returned hollow: these are not separate stories. They are one message told three different ways, that our lives, and even our remains, are treated as theirs to discard. The men and women in that tree, the sons handed back without their hearts, the mother of four whose family swears she was not suicidal: they are casualties of the same war, and we will name it as one.
So here is what I owe my children and my people. Here is our response:
- Demand independent investigations: outside examiners, independent autopsies, and federal review of every case.
- Build a national network of Black organizations, so help reaches every family in days, not never.
- Stand up a rapid-response task force: legal counsel, safety guidance, and financial support for affected families.
- Control our own story: tell these cases on Black-owned media and keep every name in front of the public until answers come.
- Document every death, the official ruling beside the family’s truth, because what is written down cannot be erased.
Ultimately, our solution lives where it has always lived: in our own traditional culture, our own institutions, our own hands. That is the long road, and it is the only one that has ever truly kept us safe. In the meantime, they leave us no other option but to organize and to protect our own.
Marcus Garvey told us to Protect and Build. I intend to do both, for the people in my home and the people in my community. This is our country. We are not leaving. They need to back off. I will wait on no one’s permission and no one’s rescue.
UNIA-ACL New York Division · unianewyork@gmail.com · unia-aclnewyork.com One God! One Aim! One Destiny! — Protect and Build
Sources: EJI (Lynching in America; Reconstruction in America); FBI 2023 Hate Crime Statistics (DOJ); Alabama custody cases via CBS News; case details via CNN, PBS, Capital B.
