N.C. Boys death a lynching, Mother Says by Milan Hamilton

Claudia Lacy says she can accept anything: even that her youngest son committed suicide- if it's proven and explained to her. However, she says, local and state investigators have done neither to support their theory that Lennon Lacy hanged himself one summer night. She says she's long lost confidence in the Bladenboro Police Department and the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The last time Lacy saw and heard her son was August 28. Lennon, 17, played the lineman position for the West Bladen High School Knightsin in Bladenboro, North Carolina, and was focused on football. His family says that night, he packed a gym bag, washed his ankle brace and hung it on the clothesline to dry before heading out for an evening walk. The teen had asthma, his mother says, and a doctor had recommended he exercise outdoors at night when the temperature and humidity dropped. Around 10:30, Lennon left his family's small apartment and headed down a dirt road. Just before 7:30 the next morning, he was found hanging from the frame of a swing set in the center of a mobile home community. According to medical documents, his body was covered in fire ants. Lennon's mother was called to the scene several hours later, after he'd been placed into a body bag. She believes Lennon was lynched. The teen had been dating a 31-year-old white neighbor. The age of consent in North Carolina is 16. Some people in their small, southern town did not like that the two were together. Lacy did not like their drastic age difference. In the wake of his death, some wondered whether Lennon had been killed because he was in an interracial relationship. A week after Lennon was buried, a local teenager was arrested for defacing his grave. Lacy says she told investigators that the belts used to fashion the noose did not belong to Lennon. Lennon's family believes there was a rush to judgment. And until someone clearly explains and proves how her son died, Lacy says she'll keep fighting until she gets answers.

This is really so sad and I hope the family finds answers. This is really interesting because it relates to some of the tragic events that are happening now and also relates to the events that happened after the civil war. The groups that formed, such as the Klu Klux Klan would be responsible for acts like this and it would be interesting to know if this tragic hanging was a result of something similar.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/12/15/justice/north-carolina-lennon-lacy/index.html?c=us&page=5