Ten hanging deaths of Black people in 2026 were cited this week as “widespread modern-day lynchings” and “racial terror.”
Most of those cases have been ruled suicides by local authorities and medical examiners. One is now a homicide. Another remains open.
That did not stop two members of Congress from calling the list a wave of lynchings. Rep. Ayanna Pressley and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez posted it on X. Community Notes overrode both posts. Pressley called the deaths a “national crisis” and demanded a federal investigation “to stop modern-day lynchings.” Ocasio-Cortez said she was proud to have signed on “to address these widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror.”
Screenshot of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez quoting Rep. Ayanna Pressley on X, with Community Notes attached.
Readers added the context that was missing from the podium: most of the high-profile cases had already been ruled suicides, with no evidence of foul play. Framing them as modern-day lynchings is not what the official findings say.
Elon Musk replied to Ocasio-Cortez’s post and asked Grok to list each of the hangings and identify the race of the murderer. Grok’s reply tracked the local rulings: most of the cited 2026 cases had been ruled suicides with no evidence of foul play, one was a homicide investigation, and, one remained open. Musk then shared Grok’s reply and added: “Misleading post that fans the flames of hate by AOC.”
Pressley had already led a letter to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel demanding a federal investigation into every hanging death of a Black person. Fifty-nine Democrats joined. The demand went out on official accounts on September 10 — before the one Mississippi case was ruled a homicide that night.
Reporting on the letter’s list treats that Jackson death as the homicide probe and one North Carolina case as still open. The rest of the cited 2026 cases were closed as suicides. Families in several of those cases have disputed the local findings. A family’s questions are not a verdict.
The North Carolina case remains an open, equivocal investigation. Police have not called it a lynching. Chief Lawrence Wiggins said the evidence will provide the conclusion; anything else will create more confusion.
These families buried people they loved. They are entitled to a complete record. A second autopsy, when they ask for one, is that request. It is not a political cue. It does not require branding the full list a wave of lynchings. If Blanche and Patel open a file, start with the autopsy and the warrant. The podium can wait.
Lynching is a specific crime with a specific history. Suicide is also real. So is homicide that is not a hate crime. Police have not called the Jackson case a hate crime. That still does not turn the full list into racial terror.
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