A Black man missing for over a week was just found today hanging from a tree in southern Mississippi.
54-year old Otis James Byrd was found hanging from a tree Thursday, according to Sheriff Marvin Lucas of Claiborne County, Mississippi. He had been missing for ten days and was last seen at a local casino where a friend had dropped him off.Â
The NAACP has asked the U.S. Dept. of Justice to investigate.
The FBI is investigating and has said Byrd’s body was found “a half mile from his last know residence,” according to WLBT.
Claiborne County has one of the highest African-American populations in the country. 84 percent of residents are Black. A study by the Equal Justice Initiative released last month “found white Southerners lynched nearly 4,000 black men, women and children between 1877 and 1950.”
CNN adds it is “unclear if it is a suicide, or if the man was killed by someone.”
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Image:Â Claiborne County Courthouse and Confederate monument. Photo via Wikimedia