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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., warned Friday of “racial terror” and “widespread modern-day lynchings” in the U.S. as she joined dozens of Democrats demanding that the DOJ and FBI investigate hanging deaths of Black Americans.
Multiple official findings in several recent cases show that law enforcement or medical examiners ruled the deaths suicides, while at least one very recent death remains under a homicide investigation.
AOC alleges there is systemic racial bias at the agencies, while fellow progressive lawmaker Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., called the hangings a “national crisis” in a letter to the agencies that she spearheaded.
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“This year, there have already been 10 reported hangings of Black people in the U.S. I’ m proud to have signed onto Rep. Pressley’s letter to address these widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X in support of the call.
Pressley warned in her letter that “Black folks are being found hanged in America” and insisted: “We cannot stand by while strange fruit hangs from trees across the country.”
The letter, addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, was signed by Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez and about 50 Democrats. They demanded a “thorough, transparent, and comprehensive federal investigation into every hanging death of a Black individual across the United States,” arguing that federal agencies have failed for decades to adequately investigate such deaths.
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One 2026 case involved the death of a 21-year-old Atlanta man who had gone missing. He was later found hanging from a tree in a Cobb County park, where officials ruled out foul play and deemed the death a suicide, according to Atlanta’s NBC affiliate.
Another 2026 case involved Delta State University student Demartravion Reed in Mississippi. Officials “determined the cause of death to be a hanging and the manner of death as suicide.”
At the time, the case reopened old memories of the murder of Emmett Till, according to reports. Till was a Black teen kidnapped and murdered by White men not far from the site after he was falsely accused of flirting with a White woman in 1955.
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A Grio report on Pressley’s letter also referenced the hanging deaths of a 58-year-old man in Albany, N.Y., and a 39-year-old man in Brookfield, Wisconsin.
The Albany Police Department said Earl Smith’s death was “ruled a suicide” and investigators found “no evidence” of criminal activity.
“The Albany Police Department is aware of concerns posted on social media suggesting that criminal activity was involved with this incident, which has understandably caused public concern,” the department said.
A preliminary investigation of the Wisconsin man’s death also indicated suicide, according to Brookfield’s police chief cited by the Waukesha County Freeman.
At least one case remains under homicide investigation, according to reports.
Tasia Fortune was found hanging outside an abandoned house in Jackson, Mississippi, CNN reported Thursday. Authorities later questioned Terence Bernard Anderson, the father of one of her children, and arrested him on unrelated weapons charges, according to several reports.
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The lawmakers’ characterization also drew criticism on social media.
“Those community notes are stacking up,” one critic said, as X’s crowdsourced correction indicator included several wire reports and media links disputing Ocasio-Cortez’ claims.
“There should be some sort of penalty for willfully lying on social media, especially for a politician,” another claimed.
Former Energy Department official Matt Van Swol posted to X, “In the last ‘lynching’ of a Black woman, the media conveniently left out the prime suspect in the case was her Black boyfriend. Zero White people are lynching Black people in America today.”
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Former Senate staffer Matt Whitlock added that “every death is a tragedy, but what do you think ‘widespread’ means if only one of these was actually a homicide. Not sure you’ve landed the point about ‘racial terror’ with this.”
X’s crowdsourced Community Notes feature also pointed readers to law-enforcement and medical-examiner findings in several of the cases, stating that most high-profile hanging deaths it identified in 2025 and 2026 had been ruled suicides and that one remained under homicide investigation.
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Fox News Digital reached out to Ocasio-Cortez, Pressley, the DOJ and the FBI for comment.
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