The death of a black teenager in Bladenboro, North Carolina has led The F.B.I. and the community into suspicion about this young man’s untimely death. On August 28th, 17-year-old Lennon Lacy was found hanging by a dog leash, a belt, and was wearing laceless shoes that were a size and a half too small for his feet. According to his mother and brother, Lennon left out his home wearing a new pair of Air Jordan size 12 sneakers however when his body was discovered, those sneakers were nowhere in sight.
Relatively quickly after his death, the media examiner ruled it a suicide suggesting that the teenager was depressed even though the physical evidence suggested otherwise.
Lacy was last seen leaving his home for an evening run to prepare for his next day football game, but he never returned home. After months of petitioning, the town’s county District Attorney Jon David announced that the FBI will continue with the case.
“Black people don’t walk late at night, because they’re afraid of not making it home.” Said Lacy’s father Larry Walton.
Bladenboro, NC is a small town where racial tensions still occur because of the 80% white and 18% black population of the city. Which led many to believe that Lennon’s 31-year-old girlfriend, who is a white woman, could possible play a part in the murder.
“How do you psychologically value a dead person?” His father asked. “He was just too excited for football for me to believe that he would end himself.”
The town feels that if Lacy was white and was found in an African-American section of the city, then it would have quickly been assumed as a crime involving drugs or other things.
“Was he killed? Was my son lynched? Asked his mother Claudia Lacy. “It’s hard to think that in 2014, with a black man in the White House, such a thing could have happened in the United States.”
The NAACP is organizing a March on Saturday in Bladenboro.
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