Imagine being a strapping 17-year-old Black athlete from Bladenboro, North Carolina, with dreams of playing collegiate and professional football in your future. Imagine spending an entire summer training, bulking up to 200 pounds, increasing your strength, lateral movement, and overall awareness in preparation for your upcoming season on the West Bladen Knights varsity team. Imagine seeing your handwork pay off, and hearing that you’ve been named a starting linebacker for your squad. Imagine the joy you would feel after crushing your first opponent, South Robeson High School, 42-8 in the season opener. Then, imagine how excited you would be to play your home-opener the following week against the West Columbus Vikings, in front of your family, friends, and classmates. Now, stop imagining, because the boy you’ve pictured in your mind reportedly hanged himself on a wooden swing set in a trailer park. That is the story of Lennon Lacy that we are being told to believe, and if that doesn’t make sense to you, don’t worry you’re not alone.
As far as local authorities are concerned, there was no foul play in the death of Lacy, at all. After the autopsy determined that he died on Aug. 29, 2014 from asphyxiation, their conclusion was suicide. But that deduction is troubling for many reasons, especially the fact that he decided to end his life hours before playing the game he loved. But, just as I’m willing to entertain the theory that he was dealing with personal issues that trumped playing football, I’m not willing to overlook the abrasions and lumps all over the face and shoulders of his 200-pound. Those injuries suggest a struggle ensued before he died.
If authorities want us to believe that he hanged himself, they first must explain why both his cheeks, his chin, and his nose were all indented, why there was a knot on his forehead, and why his arms and back had multiple abrasions. Explain why he wasn’t wearing his brand new Air Jordans when he was found, and why the sneakers have gone missing when Lacy reportedly treated them with meticulous attention. This boy, who showed no signs of mental illness, supposedly decided to kill himself after laying out his school clothes and prepping for the big game to come? I’m simply not buying that, but there is a much more logical, and far more devious truth that lies at the heart of this: Lennon Lacy, a young Black boy living in the South was lynched in 2014.
Bladenboro is not an inclusive, racially-sensitive place. This is a rural town so racially-charged, that police ordered Lacy’s neighbors to remove from their front yard a Confederate Flag that was accompanied by a sign that read: “Niggers keep out.” While the town was not completely segregated, they clearly lag behind more progressive places in terms of racial equality. And the racial animus in the town was definitely not helped by the fact that Lacy was dating a 31-year-old white woman.
Michelle Brimhall, the woman Lacy was dating, stated she doesn’t believe he would ever kill himself, because he loved his mother Claudia Lacy. In her mind, it’s not a question about how did he died, but rather who killed him. It’s interesting to note that Brimhall’s former husband, whom she left in February, was not even questioned by local authorities. While there was no physical evidence tying the husband to the crime scene, the fact that he went unquestioned is troubling given the entirety of the circumstances. In fact, just days after Lacy was buried, his grave site was desecrated by cowardly vandals who carved a hole into his burial spot and threw his flowers into a gutter. If Lacy was just a troubled teen who committed suicide, then where is this overt hatred and animosity coming from? How can it be so easily explained away and overlooked?
At this point, we do not know exactly how Lennon Lacy met his demise. But, the story of a young Black boy being lynched in a rural, openly-racist town is not a new one. The real question is: How many of us are willing to entertain that this “post-racial society” is not much different than the one that took the life of Emmett Till?
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Lincoln Anthony Blades blogs daily on his site ThisIsYourConscience.com, he’s an author of the book “You’re Not A Victim, You’re A Volunteer” and a weekly contributor for UPTOWN Magazine. He can be reached via Twitter @lincolnablades and on Facebook at This Is Your Conscience.