For Immediate Release · August 20, 2026
A Call for Truth, Accountability, and Mental Health Care in the Wake of Recurring Tragedy
GARNER, NC – Today, I am speaking not only as a candidate for the U.S. Senate and a co-chair of the Black Caucus of the North Carolina Green Party, but as a Black man in America who is tired. Tired of seeing our people found hanging from trees. Tired of being told to accept these deaths as isolated tragedies without question. And tired of a system that refuses to acknowledge the centuries-old trauma that makes these moments so devastatingly familiar.
On August 15, 2026, a 32-year-old Black man was found hanging from a tree in a downtown Raleigh parking lot. Police have ruled his death a suicide, citing surveillance footage and no evidence of foul play. Just weeks earlier, 29-year-old Tasia Fortune, a mother, was found hanging from a tree in Jackson, Mississippi. And in September 2025, 21-year-old Demartravion "Trey" Reed, a student at Delta State University, was found hanging from a tree on campus. All have been ruled suicides. Since 2000, at least eight Black men have been found hanging from trees in Mississippi alone; all ruled suicides. Since 2024, at least eight young Black people have been found hanging from trees across several Southern states.
I refuse to accept that this is normal.
When a Black body is found hanging from a tree in the American South, it invokes something visceral. It invokes the legacy of "strange fruit"; the haunting image immortalized by Billie Holiday that described Black bodies swinging from poplar trees while white crowds cheered, brought their families, and even turned the horror into postcards. That history is not ancient. It is living. It is breathing. And it is being ignored by the very authorities who are supposed to protect us.
To be clear: suicide is a reality in the Black community. We lose far too many of our people to suicide, and we must address that crisis with compassion and urgency. But it is the manner of death, the act of hanging, that makes these cases so difficult to process. For a people whose ancestors were lynched, whose grandparents grew up under the threat of the rope, and whose history books are filled with images of Black bodies dangling from trees while white families gathered to watch, the sight of a Black person hanging from a tree is not just a death. It is a reenactment. A reminder. A wound reopened.
The thought of Black people hanging in the South should stop us all in our tracks. But instead, we are told to move on. To accept the official narrative. To not ask questions. To not speculate. To not grieve publicly. This is a profound failure of accountability. A refusal to reckon with the reality that Black people have never had the space to properly heal from the trauma of lynching and racial terror.
We must have an honest conversation about Black mental health. One that does not end with a rushed conclusion of suicide. The very real mental health question we have to seriously consider is that Black people have not had proper mental health care since emancipation. Post-traumatic stress disorder does not fit the narrative of Black people in the United States because the effects are still lingering to this day. The visceral reaction that arises when we see a Black body hanging from a tree is evidence enough of the ongoing trauma we carry.
Black people in America are still dealing with the tragedies of our past, and we have yet to have time for healing. The violence did not end with the Civil Rights Movement. It simply changed forms. And our mental health system has never been equipped to address race-based traumatic stress because it was never designed for us.
We are calling for:
1. Full, transparent investigations
Into every death of a Black person found hanging — with independent oversight and community involvement. Families deserve answers, not dismissals.
2. Federal intervention
Where local authorities have failed to provide adequate investigation or transparency.
3. Culturally competent mental health care for Black communities
Including expanded access to therapists who understand race-based traumatic stress, and fully funded community-based mental health services.
4. Acknowledgement of the historical context
That these deaths do not happen in a vacuum. They happen in a country where Black bodies were once displayed as trophies, and where that legacy has never been fully confronted.
5. Accountability
For law enforcement, for medical examiners, for elected officials who refuse to take these deaths seriously, and for a system that consistently fails to protect and serve Black communities.
Black people shouldn't have to live in fear of seeing other Black people hanging and having it call forth the lynchings of the South in such a manner that a family grieving cannot even properly mourn. That is not justice. That is not peace. That is not healing.
I am calling on every elected official, every law enforcement agency, and every mental health institution in this country to treat these deaths with the urgency and seriousness they deserve. I am calling on the federal government to investigate the pattern of Black bodies found hanging across the South. And I am calling on every person watching to demand better because our lives depend on it.
The Green Party stands unapologetically for the lives and dignity of Black people. We will not look away. We will not accept "suicide" as a blanket answer. We will not stop fighting for truth, accountability, and the mental health care our communities have been denied for centuries.
"It is time to break the silence. It is time to heal. It is time for justice."
- Michael Dublin, Green Party Candidate for U.S. Senate, North Carolina
Michael Dublin is the Green Party candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina and a co-chair of the Black Caucus of the North Carolina Green Party. He is a proud advocate for housing justice, Universal Healthcare for All, reparations, and the Four Pillars of the Green Party: Peace & Non-Violence, Ecological Wisdom, Grassroots Democracy, and Social Justice.
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