1. United States
2. N.J.
3. Letter

I am writing to you about the NAACP’s request for Congressional Investigation and Data Collection Concerning Suspicious Deaths of Black People in the United States. As a NJ resident and an American citizen I am very disturbed by the numbers of suspicious deaths of Black People in our country. In Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana, Florida, Tennessee and Alabama, there have been 70 cases between 2000 and 2005 of what can be called “modern-day lynchings”. More recently Nolan. Xavier Wells, 18 yrs old, was found dead in Mississippi. This past April, Daniel Erving, a Black 18 yr old was found dead in Dallas, Texas. On June 18 Tonea Nicole Miller a 27 yr old Black woman was found dead in Miami, Florida. This past May, 16 yr old Juliana Umba Nita was found hanged. Also Demartravion Reed, was found hanged on the campus of Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi. And just this month Tasia Fortune, a 29 yr old Black woman and mother of four was hanged from a tree in Mississippi. It is not clear that any of these deaths were sufficiently investigated. As a woman who remembers the era of tragic lynchings throughout the south and who has stood with the many people demanding the Emmett Till Anti Lynching Act, I am appalled that this situation is still being tolerated. I sincerely hope that you will support the request of the NAACP to open Congressional Investigations into these deaths, and to hold accountable the perpetrators.