Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and fellow “Squad” member Rep. Ayanna Pressley are pressing federal authorities to examine what they describe as a national emergency involving alleged “modern-day lynchings” of Black Americans, even as publicly available findings in most of the cited cases have not established racial motivation.
The progressive New York Democrat joined Pressley, of Massachusetts, and several other Democratic lawmakers in a Tuesday letter to US Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, calling for a full federal review of suspicious deaths and accountability where warranted. The lawmakers pointed to “10 reported hangings of Black people” in the United States so far in 2026.
“We are extremely alarmed by reports of Black people found hanging from trees in numerous
states throughout our country,” the lawmakers wrote. “The series of deaths raise significant suspicion of foul play given the role of lynching in our nation’s history.
“Therefore, we write to urgently demand a thorough, transparent, and comprehensive federal investigation into every hanging death of a Black individual across the United States.”
Ocasio-Cortez and Pressley both shared the letter on X, where it quickly drew pushback from users who noted that medical examiners or law enforcement officials had reportedly classified most of the 10 deaths as suicides.
Responding to The Post, Ocasio-Cortez’s press office said that, with the permission of the families of the deceased, each case should at least receive an independent autopsy, a review of local and state police work, an examination of physical and witness evidence, and a final report to Congress detailing federal findings.
The lawmakers’ letter also urged stronger federal data collection to monitor hanging deaths involving Black Americans in a more transparent, consistent and systematic way.
Among the deaths referenced in the letter, only one — the case of 29-year-old Mississippi woman Tasia Fortune — is currently being investigated as a homicide.
Terence Anderson, who is Black, has reportedly been held as a person of interest in connection with Fortune’s death.
Another one of the deaths — of a black father of nine children in North Carolina — has been deemed suspicious. It also is still open.
The other hanging death victims, who were from Georgia and North Carolina, among other states, have been ruled suicides without foul play by local authorities.
The Democratic lawmakers — including AOC and Pressley, members of the left-wing congressional party faction known as “The Squad” — asked the Department of Justice to make use of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act, passed in 2022, should any of the deaths be determined to be lynchings.
The law makes lynchings a federal hate crime offense, punishable by up to 30 years in prison.
Nearly 60 Democrats signed on to Tuesday’s letter, including Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), who serves as chair of the Congressional Black Caucus.
The DOJ and FBI did not respond to Post requests for comment, nor did reps for Pressley’s congressional office.
