MISSISSIPPI IS STILL DISAPPEARING BLACK PEOPLE

JACKSON, Miss. — Another Black person has been found hanging from a tree in Mississippi.

On August 3, an unidentified Black woman was discovered hanging from a tree in the backyard of a vacant home in Jackson. Police have not ruled out suicide or foul play. The investigation remains ongoing.

The language is familiar. The pattern is familiar. The danger is familiar.

The woman’s body is being transported to the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office — the same office that has faced intense criticism surrounding the death investigation of Trey Reed, whose death was ruled a suicide with no foul play suspected.

For Black communities watching these cases unfold, that history matters.

This is the same Mississippi where Trey Reed and Roy Veal were both found hanging from trees. Now, another Black person — this time a woman — has been found hanging behind a vacant home in Jackson.

And we need to talk about the history that makes these deaths hit differently.

Mississippi’s history of racial terror and lynching is not metaphorical or symbolic. Black people were murdered by white mobs, bodies were publicly displayed, law enforcement officials sometimes participated in or enabled racial violence, and authorities routinely failed to deliver justice. Ida B. Wells famously documented and challenged the lies used to justify lynching across the South.

That history is why Black people have every right to demand transparency, independent scrutiny and accountability when deaths like these occur.

For Black people in Mississippi: stay in community. Stay accounted for. Let somebody you trust know where you’re going and when you’re home. Keep your phone charged. Share your location with someone you trust. Travel with people when you can.

If somebody goes missing, raise hell immediately. Don’t assume you have to wait before reporting someone missing. Document who you speak with, when you called and what you were told. If you’re involved in a police interaction, contact somebody you trust and make sure another person knows what’s happening.

We have been talking about this for months.

Trey Reed. Roy Veal. And now another Black woman found hanging from a tree behind a vacant home in Jackson.

Black people have seen what happens when our deaths are dismissed, forgotten or explained away without sufficient answers.

Stay aware. Stay connected. Ask questions. Demand answers. And do not allow these cases to disappear with the people we’ve lost.

BLACK PEOPLE, DO NOT STAY QUIET!!!!

If someone in our community goes missing, raise the alarm immediately. Make the calls. File the reports. Contact the family. Share their name and photograph. Ask questions. Keep asking questions. Document everything.

If a death does not make sense, demand answers. Demand transparency. Demand evidence. Demand independent review when necessary. Do not allow legitimate questions to disappear simply because an official statement has been issued.

Look out for one another. Tell somebody where you’re going. Check on your people. Share your location with someone you trust. Keep records of interactions with authorities when appropriate and lawful. Build networks within our communities so that when something happens, somebody notices. Somebody asks questions. Somebody speaks up.

Mississippi’s history of racial terror taught us what can happen when Black lives are treated as disposable—and what can happen when institutions aren’t sufficiently challenged.

BLACK PEOPLE: DO NOT STAY QUIET.

Speak their names.
Share their stories.
Protect one another.
Demand accountability.
Demand transparency.
Demand answers.

We cannot investigate these deaths ourselves. We cannot declare every suspicious death a lynching without evidence. But we absolutely can refuse to look away.

MAKE NOISE. ASK QUESTIONS. KEEP RECEIPTS. PROTECT EACH OTHER.