Lynching is an extrajudicial punishment by an informal group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob, often by hanging, in order to punish an alleged transgressor, or to intimidate a minority group. (Wikipedia)

For the past two of three years I have been calling awareness to the plight of lynching. Through an online event called, International Lynching Awareness Day Lynching which has until recent the tragic death of the young teenager 17-year-old Lennon Lee Lacy of Bladenboro (Bladen County) two counties south east of Goldsboro (Wayne County) here in NC, has not been in the national consciousness despite cases in the early 2000’s which have actually received national attention. Even the Lennon Lacy case, which was initially ruled a suicide, was reported s an “isolated case.” It had many wondering, now in light of protest of the rash of police killings of mainly unarmed African-American men, that is lynching in America “back?” The bitter truth is that lynching never stopped!

My rude awakening happened on Feb. 24, 2009, when I received a call at exactly 9:00am from my first ex-wife telling me that our oldest son, Jibril was dead. They lived in a predominately white neighborhood of Dundalk. Where we purchased a house years before we divorced. Jibril was an enterprising young man of 21 who had an extremely bright future ahead of him. I cried loud and hard for at least 20 minutes or more. My beloved son. My heir was dead. A short while later, however, my second oldest son, Sulaiman, called with more shocking news. He said, “Abi (My father in Arabic), Jibril was hung.” “Hung?” I replied in even more shock. Turned out that my daughter (their sister), Kabira found Jibril hanging from a beam at the basement door. He shared a bedroom in the basement with Sulaiman who was away visiting relatives in Alabama.   The so-called authorities did not investigated his death, instead they automatically declared it was a suicide though Jibril was just approved for a loan to purchase his first home less that 24 hours ago!

I had just recently moved to NC. Jibril and I were close.   I lost not only a son but a friend and companion. When I moved here he and I worked nights and spent many nights in conversation. I still have his last email to me 2 days before his death. After I returned to NC after I buried my son, I did research. I typed in “murder to look like suicide” and what I found

There have been lynchings going on practically every year leading up to my son’s death and in almost all the cases, as in my son’s, were ruled “suicides!”

Unfortunately, in 2010,the year after Jibril’s death, a star H.S. student athlete, Charles Conley, 19,  was found lynched in Dover, DE.  There was another lynching in a park in Dover in 2012.  The victim, Johnny Lorenzo Clark, a local barber was found hung with his own belt at Dover’s Silver Lake Park on May 12th. In October there was an attempted lynching in the same park but  this time the victim Henry Fordham got away.  He was able to fully describe the devils who tried to lynch him.  Even getting their first names (John and Mike).  The fact that they were driving a white pickup truck.  He was able to express how they set him up, then kidnapped him took him to the park then assaulted him while attempting to hang him.  Unfortunately it was Mr. Fordham who was arrested instead of the assailants.  The Dover police did not want to believe him despite of the obvious injuries Mr. Fordham had suffered.  Dover and Delaware state police, in an attempt to cover up the incident, continue to harass him and Dr. Issa Smith, a professor at Delaware State University (DSU), a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), who got involved with the investigations of Mr. Fordham’s case and the others.  Please go to Youtube to see the interview with Henry Fordham.  It is entitled “2012 Delaware Lynchings: The Henry Fordham Story.”  There are about 6 or 7 videos in the series.  Also google “Delaware  lynchinegs” or either of the cases just mentioned.

Two more lynchings were reported of two young black men in Cincinnati, OH in 2012.

In 2013, Kory Ingham, 18, was found hung in Athens, TX.  Kody who has a white mother was dating a white girl. (in Lennon Lacy’s case he was dating a white woman twice his age).  Kody’s mother refused to view it as a lynching.

I discovered that there was a White supremacist convention in Maryland just two weeks before my son’s death.  There was a Klan rally in Bladensboro just before Lennon Lacy’s death.

In 1981, a young black man, Michael Donald, 19, was found hung from a tree in a park in Mobile, AL.  That case turned out quite different.  Not only was it ruled a homicide and arrest of two terrorist klansmen, Henry Frances Hays, 25, and James “Tiger” Knowles, 17, and another accomplice Frank Cox, 27. The mother of the victim was able to sue the local chapter of the Klan and was able to take possession all of their property.

Though lynching victims are mostly young Black men, a census worker whose death got national attention in what appeared to be a lynching by someone hostile to the Federal government. It was later ruled a suicide though he had the words, “Fed” scratched on his chest.  The victim was a white male.  And recently in perhaps the saddest case of all is of a 6-year old girl, Kendrea Johnson who was found hung by her own jump rope in Brooklyn. On December 27, 2014.  Reports stated the little girl made suicidal statements since being trapped in the foster care system but according to investigators the knots in the rope were too sophisticated for a of child her age to tie.

Some of the known victims of lynchings (as far as I know) 1985-2015:

Andre Jones, 18, Mississippi, 1993 (In a jail for a speeding ticket. Was to start engineering school the next day) Feraris “Ray” Golden, 32, Florida, 2003 (father of 3, found hanged on an umbrella tree in his grandmother’s backyard with hands tied behind his back)

Robert “Jose” McNair, 46, Mississippi, 2003 (Business owner, cousin of former NFL star quarterback, the late Steve McNair.)

Winston Deroyal Carter, 29, Tuskegee, Alabama, 2004 (found at 6:15am)

Bernard Burden, 21, Georgia, 2004

Raynard Johnson, 17, Mississippi, 2005

Jibril Mustafa, 21, Maryland, 2009 (Just got approved for a loan to buy a house the day before)

Charles Conley, 19, Delaware, 2010 (Well-liked star student athlete)

Frederick Jermaine Carter, 26, Mississippi, 2010 (a white pickup was used by property owners where the tree that he was found hanged on.  It may just be pure coincidence but the two assailants in the Henry Fordham case, John and Mike drove a white pickup truck)

Johnny Lorenzo Clark, Delaware, 2012 (A local barber)

Two lynchings of unidentified young black men, Cincinnati, OH, 2012

Kody Ingham, Texas, 2013 (His mother is white and does not want to believe it is a lynching)

Lennon Lee Lacy, Bladensboro, NC (He was found hanged with shoes two sizes too small).

There is a book that has been recently published about lynching in this country from 1870-1950.

We are also coming upon the 60 years since the brutal lynching of 14 year old Emmit Till. Thus lynching especially since the recent cases of Lennon Lee Lacy and Otis Byrd will be on the minds of most Americans.

The media has made it seemed that lynching had ended and that it was a thing of the past.  As public spectacle it may have ended but lynching continues as a clandestine and secretive crime.  Instead of pictures of smiling white racist terror mobs, todays terrorist are hidden and act in pairs.

To live with the reality that your son or loved one has been murdered is cruel enough.  But have to been lynched by unknown criminals, who the so-called authorities have let get away with, is devastating. Please do your research online as there is much information of the topic of lynching within the last 30 years and more recent.

For more information about these deaths visit the blog and Facebook page, “Justice 4 Jibril” http//justice4jibril.blogspot.com or http://www.Facebook.com/Justice4Jibril