Investigation into Lynching Deaths in Mississippi

The death of Taja Fortune, a Black Mississippi woman who

was found hanging from a

tree, has brought up distressing memories of the

grim history of lynchings in the

United States South. The 29-year-old's body

was found behind an abandoned home

in Jackson on August 3rd.

Last night, the medical examiner's office officially

classified Ms.

Fortune's death as a homicide. We secured two search

warrants and an arrest warrant for Jacques Ratcliffe, also

known as Jacques. Officers took him into custody without

any incident.

Although Fortune's mother, Kristy Spivey, says she doesn't think her daughter's

death was racially motivated, for many Black people,

the imagery of a rope

and noose evokes the legacy of lynching and vigilante violence against Black

people

in the US, and brings deep pain and trauma.

Over the past two years, about a half a dozen Black women

and men have been found

hanged across the South. Police in some of those cases quickly

deemed them

suicides, often eliciting historically grounded

skepticism.

In North Carolina, police are investigating the August 21st death of

38-year-old

Demetrius Eugene Fleming. In February, police in Cobb County, Georgia, found

the body of 21-year-old Kyle Basinga in a park.

While investigators said there was no indication of foul play,

Cobb County

Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid said Basinga's death caused many to think about

the days of slavery and of Jim Crow.

The September 2025 death of 21-year-old Black student Trey Reed at

Mississippi's Delta State University was ruled a suicide, as was that of

39-year-old De Norris Richardson in September 2024 in Alabama's

Colbert County. Richardson's wife has said she does not

believe he killed himself.

More than 4,400 lynchings occurred in the US between Reconstruction and World War

II, according to the Alabama-based Equal

Justice Initiative.

Almost 60 members of Congress signed a letter demanding

that the Justice Department

investigate the hanging deaths of Black individuals and enforce the

2022 Emmett Till Antilynching Act, which made lynching a federal

hate crime. The Justice Department confirmed it

received the letter, but has not

responded, according to Representative Ayanna

Pressley's office.