Possible Lynching

I choose this article because it ties history with the present. Roy Veal's body was found hanging from a tree with a blue-flowered pillowcase over his head. Hunters came across his body in a wooded area in Wilkinson County. Veal's body was not far from his Ford F-150 pickup truck, where many of his personal papers were discovered. Alvin Blakes claimed that Roy Veal was his cousin and hinted that he may have been lynched because he was in court fighting to retain ownership of his family's land, which a white family had somehow laid claim to.

Karen Carrillo, New York Amsterdam news reporter, “The shocking news that a 55-year-old African American was found hanging from a tree near Woodville, Mississippi, April 23, 2004 has once again brought back memories of what many thought was that state's racist past.” This story easily relates to our class. We have seen numerous pictures, watched a short clip, and discussed in length the how lynching/hangings have shaped our countries northern and southern states. A lynching was used by the White people to keep black people in line in drastic measures, if a slave escaped, if a slave fooled around with a White girl, or just any black person they despised. “Vesey, and 35 other blacks were planning on burning Charleston, South Carolina, but we ratted out, and they were all hanged. Zinn (pg. 131)” That was in the past and those things were said to over after the civil war. That is why there are many uncertainties about the modes of this event. "A lot of stuff in that email was untrue," Oliver asserted. "Like, for instance, the email says his family's land had oil, but it was actually timber. And there were no marks of trauma on his body. That was not true." Oliver was the second police officer on the scene. “Wilkinson County has not had many racial incident cases recently, which is another reason Oliver is cautious about calling Veal's death a lynching. In fact, case evidence so far has led authorities to believe Veal committed suicide.” Even though this event maybe suicide, the fear of a lynching as haunted this town.

A thorough investigation is going and I would like to hear the final verdict of what exactly went on. I’m not sure what to think about this. I haven’t heard of a lynching in decades, but the south is known for them and I wouldn’t be surprised that these kinds of things go on uncaught. I have heard that the K.K.K. is still lingering around, so that is why I don’t doubt this is a lynching. It’s got all the makings, Black man fighting for his land back from a White family, and then he’s mysteriously found dead? No one can jump to conclusions but I think this is a done case.

SUMMARY
"A lynching and a regular hanging are two different incidents - if you didn't grow up in the South, you might not know the difference," he explained. "[Mr. [Roy Veal]'s] feet were only two to three inches from the ground. But in a lynching you would usually be at least six inches from the ground, and you would have a dark or colored hood cast over your head and your hands would be tied behind your back."
Wilkinson County has not had many racial incident cases recently, which is another reason [Byron Oliver] is cautious about calling Veal's death a lynching. In fact, case evidence so far has led authorities to believe Veal committed suicide. "It's tentative right now - we won't be able to say for sure until we get our evidence back from the [Mississippi] state crime lab - but we have evidence right now that he may have committed suicide," the deputy noted. "We have lots and lots and lots of literature that he sat in his truck and wrote - journals and paperwork that he wrote himself."
"Unless the family officially does something, unless there's an independent pathologist brought in there, it's going to be ruled a suicide," warns Ben Chaney of the James Earl Chaney Foundation. Ben is the younger brother of James Earl Chaney, who, along with civil rights workers Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner, was killed by Mississippi policemen and local Klan members on June 21, 1964. In the 1990s the James Earl Chaney Foundation worked with the Mississippi Coalition for Justice to spearhead investigations into the suspicious hanging deaths of Black males in Mississippi. Under former Pres. Clinton, the Justice Department closed down four jails and ordered that 18 others be upgraded. But there has never been a decisive determination as to what has led to the "suicide" deaths of so many Black men in Mississippi.

AMSTERDAM NEWS
Locations: Woodville Mississippi

People: Veal, Roy

Document types: News
Publication title: New York Amsterdam News. New York, N.Y.: May 6-May 12, 2004. Vol. 95, Iss. 19; pg. 1

Source type: Newspaper
Document URL: http://0-proquest.umi.com.maurice.bgsu.edu:80/pqdweb?did=652772591&sid=2&Fmt=3&clientId=3340&RQT=309&VName=PQD