Demonstrators were
reportedly planning to rally on Thursday to bring more attention to the controversial death of a Black man in suburban St. Louis. Ferguson, Missouri, has found itself at the center of yet another racially charged controversy after an activist claimed her son was killed by lynching this month.
Danye Jones, 24, was found hanging from a tree on Oct. 17, according to a social media post penned by his mother that has since gone viral – at least on Black Twitter. Mainstream media outlets, in contrast, have provided scant, cursory coverage of the outrageous allegations that were resonating among Black social media users in particular, who have been wondering why the death wasn’t being publicized very much.
https://twitter.com/irrelevantOM/status/1058013412091924480
“Danye was an upbeat, good-spirited, and caring young man who loved his family and his community,” according to a
GoFundMe page that was created Thursday to help his family. “He was looking forward to starting his own business before he lost his life. He was loved by many and his death has devastated his entire community beyond words. We all want justice for him and his loved ones.”
Local authorities were investigating the death as a suicide despite Jones’ mother insisting otherwise.
“They lynched my baby,” Melissa McKinnies
wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post featuring a graphic image of Jones’ dead body that was removed from because it violated the social network’s policies. McKinnies was on the front lines of the demonstrations in Ferguson in the aftermath of the police killing of Michael Brown in 2014.
Because the death was being treated as a suicide, that implied police were not actively looking for any suspects.
Jones’ death came on the heels of a
string of other suspicious deaths associated Ferguson activists, prompting Black Twitter to collectively ask why these latest claims were seemingly being brushed under the rug by local authorities.
Jones would have turned 25 on Nov. 19.
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