All language subtitles for Always.in.Season.2019.1080p.PBS.WEBRip.x264-RARBG

- I need EMS.

I have a man hanging
from a swing set.

- If you knew in your heart
and in your mind

that someone took
your child's life,

how far would you go
to get to the truth?

- We sat there with no answers,

and then they tell my mom
it was suicide.

- Was there more to the story?

This doesn't make sense.

Law enforcement did not do
their job adequately.

- Honestly, it looked like
it was a display,

like it was a back-in-the-day
lynching.

- This community has a right

to demand more investigation!

female narrator:
Filmmaker Jacqueline Olive

explores how the legacy
of racial terrorism

still haunts us today.

- If you were black and alive,

you were always at risk
to be killed.

- That isn't ancient history.

A lot of the people
involved in lynchings,

they're still around today.

- If together we face
that history,

it leads to a dialogue;

it leads to an opening
for reconciliation.

narrator: "Always in Season,"

now only on Independent Lens.

[dramatic music]

♪

[insects chirping]

- Well, Lennon was about
18 months here.

Almost two.

This is Lennon,
the oldest.

Young uncle.

Think about it as if it was
your son or your daughter.

If you knew in your heart
and in your mind

that someone
took your child's life,

and everything
that you've done

that's humanly possible,

they've taken it and
twisted it and turned it.

How far would you go
to get to the truth?

How soon would you let it go?

Neighborhood is supposed to be
a connection

of your extended family.

Someone in your family
gets hurt, you hurt.

And until this wound
is fixed and heals,

this neighborhood
will always hurt

and always be a open wound.

[mournful humming music]

♪

[phone dialing, line trilling]

♪

[retches] Oh, God.

[retching]

[solemn music]

♪

- If you read the accounts
of lynching,

the acts themselves
were so horrifying

that they became a kind
of internal story

of so many communities.

And yet, like children,
we still hope and pray

that it's far enough
in the past

that maybe we never
have to talk about it.

♪

- This report is published
with the hope

that its sheer sadism
and abnormal cruelty

may stir thoughtful
Americans to action.

If this report does not do so,

we fear that the situation
is hopeless.

- We have the Moore's Ford
lynching from 1946,

and no one has been charged.

And you mean to tell me,
after all these years,

no one will speak up?

That angers me.
Somebody knows something.

♪

- I think
that he was murdered.

I think they hung him up

to make it look
like a suicide.

A group of people
in this area,

some of 'em are all for
a good show of a lynching.

- It makes you realize that
things like that still happen.

We might not see them
all the time,

but they still happen.

[dog barking and snarling]

- I grew up here.
This has always been home.

It has sort of
a Andy Griffith feel.

A lot of the people
are country folks

and have a laid-back attitude.

I've been in many places
around the country

where there's
big cities and towns,

and I like
the small-town atmosphere

simply because
it's a slower pace.

[nostalgic music]

♪

In my growing-up time,

Cotton mill
was the main employer,

but were closed down
by the 1980s.

It was a farming town as well.

- Who's glad to be part of the
Annual Bladenboro Beast Fest?

[cheers and applause]

- I don't know if you've heard
of the "Beast of Bladenboro,"

but they have a festival
for that.

It's based on a legend.

- In 1954,

some kind of animal
killed a number of pets

and some livestock
in the area--

a figure in the dark.

The artist's conception
is something--

almost a human-like,
cat-like combination.

- You notice about
the Beast of Bladenboro,

you don't ever see
black people in that stuff.

That's a myth
that was perpetrated

by our light-skinned brothers
and sisters.

The Beast has always
been black,

and black people always had
a problem with that.

- We went with a black cat
because that's the way

it had always been portrayed
in the old articles.

It--you know,
the--the killer cat.

You know, the black cat.

It was supposed to be coming
out of the swamp

up into the edge of town.

Everybody wanted to be the one

to get their picture
in the newspapers

that they captured the Beast.

- And then, you know,
they call it

the "Swamp in the Quarters"
down there for a reason.

That's based upon
that slave term, there,

from the slave quarters.

And here in Bladenboro,

most of the African Americans
live in this particular area.

- So right here,
there was a cleaners,

and right here was
a little feed store.

They done changed it now.

All these places
that I'm telling you,

you knew where you could come

and what time
that your place was.

You know,
the first part of the morning

was mostly the business time,

and the white people
come first,

and then the black people came.

- We had it hard coming up.

We all have our skeletons,

but honey,
Bladenboro got skeletons

that, if you open the door,
they will scare you to death.

Some things that you see,
you keep it to yourself.

You will live longer.

- I haven't experienced any,
uh, personal racial division.

Everybody gets along.

Of course,
we do have the young man

that was found hanging here

in Bladenboro
a couple of years ago.

Lennon Lacy was found hanging
from a swing near his home,

I think,
is the way the story went.

Most people just don't know
what happened there.

- All right, I'm gonna take you
by the cemetery

where Lennon's in.

This here is my grandmother
and my grandfather,

Ed and Benjamin Lacy.

And that's my uncle.
He was a brickmason.

And down here...

This is Lennon's grave,
right here.

That's Lennon's grave.

[sorrowful music]

♪

- I'm playing basketball.

- Is your brother showing you
how to play?

- No.
I already know how to play.

Mm-hmm.
- Okay.

- I'm good at it.

- Okay.

♪

Lennon would've never
wanted me to not know

what happened to him.

You know, he would want me
to have some type of closure

because we were very close.

Told my son there was nothing
too insignificant

that you can't tell me.

I know everything
about your body,

everything about you.

all: Give us, Lord,
our daily bread. Amen.

- For them to say
what they did,

as far as he had taken his
own life,

I couldn't see that.

He had too much to live for.

Too much.

And I just want justice
and closure.

Last time I talked to Lennon

was the day
that we buried my uncle.

So we all came back here.

After the funeral,
Lennon was dressed down.

He had on
his dark-blue sweatpants,

a sports jersey with "Bladen"
on the front of it,

and his tennis shoes stuck out

because they were
that neon green,

but that's the color he wanted

because he had a hat
that it matched, too,

'cause he bought
the whole outfit.

The hat, the pants, and the
shirt, and the shoes matched.

I said, "Well, I'm gonna
go head to bed

'cause I'm tired and
don't feel too good. So..."

Lennon was like, "I got to
finish hanging out my things

for a football game tomorrow."

So he kissed me
on the forehead.

I said, "Don't forget to take
that stuff off the line,"

and I went to bed.

And that was the last time
I talked to Lennon.

In the morning, I was talking
to my sister over the phone

because she was
checking in on me.

I happened to glance
out the window,

and I said,
"Lennon's done left his jersey

and his support socks
on the clothesline."

She said,
"Well, I'ma let you go."

She--"'Cause I know you got to
run to the schoolhouse

and drop off his things."

And there was a knock
at the door.

Chief Hunt
is on the other side.

He let me know
that I needed to go with him.

I got in my vehicle, and I
followed him over to the park.

There was a crowd of people

standing on the side
of the road,

and I noticed

that the police was rolling up
crime scene yellow tape

from around one
of the swing sets.

The State Bureau
investigator told me

that I needed to see
if this was my son.

I go up the three steps,
sit on the back of the EMT.

I got close--as close
as you could get

other than laying
on top of his body--

to look and see and feel
and touch and smell his body.

And I rubbed his face.
I rubbed his chest...

and I just looked
at him with amaze

'cause I was literally...

disbelief...

that it--you know,
his lifeless body was there,

and I just saw him
a couple of hours prior.

♪

It was unreal...

like I was
watching a bad movie

and it was never gonna end.

And from that point on,
it became a blur to me.

and I tried to allow
my family members--

other family members--
to deal with the police.

I couldn't deal with any more
than what I was dealing with.

I just couldn't.

- At the time, I was working
in Stafford, Virginia.

And then my supervisor
is like,

"Hey, you got a phone call."

And my godbrother was...

he was telling me,
"They found Lennon."

I said, "'They?' Who're 'they'?

And what are you
talking about?"

He was like,

"They found him dead.

They say he hung himself.
He committed suicide."

He wouldn't do nothing
like that.

I just--you know, I just
saw him a couple weeks ago.

That wasn't on his mind.

I started crying.

I was--I wanted to stop
crying, but I couldn't.

I cried from my job
all the way to my mom's house.

When I walked in the house,
I was just--I saw my mom.

I'm like...

"How?

How did this happen?" You know?

And she--she couldn't--
she couldn't really--

she couldn't even really look
at me because she was so hurt.

And it hadn't--you know,
I didn't take nothing personal.

It just hurt me to know
that she was that hurt.

And I couldn't imagine what was
going on through her mind

when she had to go out there...

and see him like that.

And then they tell her

she don't know
what she talkin' about.

"He did this to himself."

And you gonna force-feed a lie
to my whole entire family

and make us think we're crazy?

It looked like...

honestly, it looked
like it was a display,

like it was a message,

like it was a--
a back-in-the-day lynching.

Like, that's what it--
that's how it made me feel.

That's how it made me feel.

[mournful humming music]

♪

- Lynching as a form
of racial terrorism

is a very particular thing.

♪

And that really began
after the Civil War

during
the Reconstruction period

when newly emancipated slaves
were making political gains,

economic gains,
educational gains.

Between the 1890s and 1960,

there were about 5,000
lynchings in the United States,

most of them
of African American men,

although there were
a few dozen cases

of African American women.

Mostly they did happen
in the South,

but they happened all over
throughout the United States.

And lynchings very often
involved hangings,

very often involved shooting,

but also burning, including
burning alive, of victims.

But it really was
the character of the murder

that made it a lynching.

Those who were involved in the
lynching perceived themselves

as having the right
to do this,

and that's why it's most
often done openly

and notoriously

with the participation
of average people...

Not just to punish
the individual person,

but as a symbol, as a sign
to the larger community--

both the white community
and the black community.

Lynching was a message crime.

Sometimes they happened
in the woods,

but most often,

they happened in places where
the body would be seen,

sometimes in a crowd of
10 or 15,000 spectators.

And it's the public nature
of lynching

that really condemns
the white community

because the idea that people
didn't know...

They did know.

♪

- "At sundown, the negro
will be taken

"to the farm
two miles from here

"where Miss Lola Cannady,
the murder victim, lived.

"There he will be mutilated
by the girl's father.

"Then he will be brought
to the pigpen and murdered

"where the girl's body
was found.

"Finally his body will be
brought to the county seat

"nine miles from here

"and hung in the courthouse
square for all to see.

All white folks
are invited to the party."

♪

[overlapping chatter]

- We want that nigger, Roger!

Now! Get him out!

- Get out of the car, nigger!

[men shouting]

Who do you think you are?

[overlapping shouting]

- Take him down!

- [wailing] Why are you
doing this to me?

What are you doing?

[shouting continues,
blows land]

- Please! Don't hurt us!

We didn't do nothing!
We didn't do nothing!

We didn't do nothing!
[screaming continues]

- Get the niggers tied up!

- Please don't kill us!

[screaming continues]

All right.
Get your rifle--

get your guns ready.

[shouting continues]

- Please!
- Please don't kill her.

- Please don't kill me.
[crying] Please don't kill me.

No! No!

[gunshots fire]

[wailing]

- Make sure he's dead.

- All right, one more time.
Come on.

Let's make sure
that nigger's dead!

[gunfire continues]

- The baby. Get the baby.

- Cover me,
and we gonna back up.

- And then open up
when she gets the baby.

Open up.

Open up.
- [grunts]

- This good, boss?
- That's real good.

[crowd gasps]
Real good.

Lloyd, do you see anybody
you know here?

I'm asking you.
You see anybody you know here?

- No.
- That's what I thought.

Get him out of here.
Get him the hell out of here.

- [exhales heavily]

Hmm.

I don't think
I've watched it since I did it.

You can feel it out here.

You can feel the spirit
of those that died out here

when we came out and we did--

you know,
did just the rehearsal.

Just since I've been here
in this town,

I see the way
that they look at you

and the--this feeling of

"Nobody should say anything.
We don't want to talk."

You know.
"Let's not talk about this."

- [crying]

- Since 2005,
Civil Rights activists

have returned
to the Moore's Ford Bridge

to re-create the night
two black couples,

Roger and Dorothy Malcom

and George
and Mae Murray Dorsey,

were lynched by
the Ku Klux Klan in 1946.

No one has ever--

- An outraged
President Harry Truman

ordered
a federal investigation

and a grand jury was convened,

yet no indictments
were brought for the killings.

The FBI reopened
its case in 2007.

Georgia state
representatives--

- The reenactment serves
as a dramatic call to action

and an annual reminder
to the Monroe community

that an injustice
has never been corrected.

Chelsea Bailey, NBC News.

- And this place is an eerie
place, you know?

[chuckles] I didn't remember
until we came here today

that we went up
under this bridge

and there was writings

that the Ku Klux Klanhad put under this--

under this very bridgethat we're standing on.

- Wow.

♪

because I'm helping to,
- It m hopefully,l sad.

bring some closure to what
happened with these families.

It's intense just watching
the reenactment.

It's intense thinking
about the fact

that it's getting ready
to happen again.

- All right, one more time.
Sharice, I need you louder.

Sharice?
Action.

- I don't care. I wanna know.This is my town.

- I need you to stay. Please.
- I wanna know.

- Nigger, what are you
doing on my land?

- You have been with my wife!
- Come on back.

- You're a lying man!
- What is going on?

- Nigger, get off my land.

- I'll get off your land
when you--

- Roger-- [screams]

- Oh, you still hit him upthe back, but that's good.

Okay. Good. Good.

- You killed him.

- That's "Mr. Malcom" to you.

Good. Okay.
You all right, Mr. Barney?

- Oh, yeah.
- [laughs]

That was good. Look.

They keep wanting to stab you
in your back, but it's okay.

We'll get it in the front,
I think.

All right, so that's scene one.
We're going to the next scene.

I will be directing

the Moore's Ford Bridge
lynching reenactment

for my third year this year.

I've been doing plays for
about 10 or 11 years now.

It was all because
of social issues that I saw

that needed to be addressed
that no one wanted to address,

and those are the issues
that I go for.

- Fire!
- [imitating gunfire]

No more moving.

It wasn't just
killing these people.

It was overkill.

They were shot so many times.

Dorothy being pregnant
didn't matter.

Pulls it up. Yep. "Got it."

"Got it, boss." Down.

The baby was taken
out of her body.

A baby.

Out of a woman's body.

Whether black, white...

so we
really push that part

so that they know
that this was some sick stuff.

- Okay.
- All right, actors.

How did y'all--how did y'all--
you all dead folk.

How do y'all feel about--
y'all get up.

This year, we're trying
to bring in more actors

to play Klansmen.

Believe it or not,
it's hard to get whites

that live in the area
to participate

because a lot of people are
actually afraid

of coming out
and facing what happened.

When we go into Monroe,
I mean, you can feel,

like, "What the heck
are you all doing here?"

- Since I've been here,
every year

they have the reenactment,

and in my opinion,

leave the past in the past.

Let these people rest.

- You know, I directed
the first two reenactments,

and I had a whole crew
of white people

that played the Klan.

And it was just two days

before we were supposed
to have the reenactment,

and all these guys
had backed out

and were saying that
they couldn't do it.

So we used white masks
and things on black people

to play Klan that first year.

- They had swastikas drawn on,
and there were black people

that had colored
their faces in white,

and could you imagine us
doing a blackface reenactment?

It would be on every news thing
in the entire world.

When you have a reenactment
of something that horrific

every single year,

what does it
teach young black people?

But I think what we need to do
is say, "That happened,

but look where we are today."

- I think it's one of the most
greatest things

that ever happened
in Walton County

because we--we want justice.

We need justice, and that
has not happened as of yet.

- Any injustice affects
everybody that's around it.

So why are we so afraid
of the truth coming out?

Why are we so afraid
to talk about it?

And that's what
the reenactment does--

Keeps it in the light.

We don't want anything
in the dark.

Bring it to the light.

[indistinct conversation]

- They desecrated the grave
five days after he was buried.

They took--took his flowers
off of it

and
threw 'em way back over here,

and the West Bladen
Styrofoam WB,

they took and broke it,

threw it way over
by the street.

You see how the sand is?

They had dug a hole
deep enough where the guy,

one of his classmates,
stuck his arm way up here.

He stuck his arm all the way
in the hole

where they had dug the
grave--dug sand out of it

like they were trying
to dig up his grave, yeah.

And they said it was not racial
or a hate crime.

I said, "I don't know
why it wouldn't be."

Lennon as an individual,
losing his uncle,

which is more or less
like a grandfather,

and then having his first
major, serious breakup

with a female,

I guess people would say
that would be a lot

for a teenager to deal with,

but Lennon was not
a typical teenager.

Like--
[train rushes by]

- Sorry, the...
- Oh, yeah. I know it.

I know it.
I hate that thing.

- That was real good, though.
You got it.

- I hate that thing.

[whistle blaring]

But Lennon,
when he was a child,

he could not stand that thing.

He would do this.
Oh, he would scream.

He would cover his ears.
He did not like that train.

[train continues]

[train rushing, bell dinging]

[somber piano music]

♪

He was the biggest kid I had,

and I'm like,
I gained a lot of weight,

but trust me,
running around behind Lennon,

it was easy to get rid of
'cause he kept me running.

- [singing indistinctly]

♪

- I think Lennon was
about four.

Pierre had taught him
his ABCs by rap.

He said, "a-A, a-B,"
and, oh, it was hilarious.

And Pierre was like--

he was like his hero.

- Me and Lennon's relationship
was kind of--I don't know.

It was just like
he was my influence

as much as I was
his influence, you know?

I wanted to do better
because he was--

I knew he was watching me
and paying attention.

His thing was football,
and he was really good at it.

My mom and Lennon moved
to North Carolina in 2012.

He took it hard because

he really
didn't want to leave.

He was born in Virginia;
he lived in Virginia.

He wanted to go
to college in Virginia.

So I had to... [sighs]

You know, persuade him
that it'll be okay,

that you're gonna
make new friends,

and then he would calm down.
He'd be like, "You're right.

That's why I'm glad
I called you," you know?

We would have those... [laughs]

I would just be like, "Man, you
got a lot of growing up to do,

but you'll be all right.
You know what I'm saying?"

- I was born in Bladen County,
Bladenboro,

right here in this same town.

So he made it his home because
he had a lot of family here.

The neighbors here--

there was only him
and Justin Jones

and Trey Hudson.

They were the only
three teenage boys

in this neighborhood.

You wouldn't see one
without the other.

You would see Justin
coming down past my house.

He'd get Lennon,
and then they'd go over

to Trey's or vice versa.

- Lennon was funny,
protective,

just an all-around
good friend.

You couldn't ask
for a better friend.

♪

We'd hang out
like teenagers do.

Walk to the park at night.

He had asthma,

so he wanted to walk at night,
and I was like, "All right."

He'd come get me
about 1:00 in the morning.

Yeah, Lennon didn't drink,
didn't smoke, didn't do drugs.

He'd drink water and Powerade.

- Hey, how you doing?

- We'd talk a lot.
We'd talk about everything.

Like brothers. Every day.

I have a tattoo of himon my arm.

Lennon Lacy.

- We had so many good times.
Like...

he was funny.

He was funny.

[sniffles]

But, uh...

yeah, he was--he was
like my brother, though.

- Yeah,
I know it must be difficult.

You must miss him.

- I only knew him
for two years,

but them two years,
we were like that.

He's still in
all of our minds.

We're not gonna let it go.

We just want to know
what happened,

but all of us think
it's not a suicide.

- From day one,
nothing was done right.

They found my brother
on a Friday night.

They put us on hold
because it was--

I think it was like,
Memorial Day, Labor Day,

one of them days.

It didn't make no sense.
The police station was closed.

We sat there with no answers
from Friday night

until Tuesday.

Then they, on Tuesday--

they come to the house
and then they tell my mom,

"Sorry for your loss.
It was suicide."

And then they walk
back outside.

So I asked them--I'm like,

"Well, how did you
get to that point?

What did you rule out?"

One of his response was,

"Are you telling me
that I didn't do my job?"

I said,
"Well, I'm not telling you

"that you didn't do your job.

I'm just saying
you could do your job better."

He said,
"Well, if you know anything

"or if you have any information
that you come up with,

give me a call
and let me know."

I said, "Okay."

I said,
"If I find out anything,

I'll call you
and let you know."

And I did. I found out
a whole lot of stuff.

I found out way more stuff
than he found out.

- I've been working on
murder cases

in the state
of North Carolina

for almost 20 years.

Claudia is a remarkably
strong woman

but was so emotionally raw

that Pierre really did step up

and take on a central role
in the investigation.

When I started looking at
the steps law enforcement took

and I started
interviewing people

like the
local medical examiner,

who told me that he
was trying

to take pictures
of the death scene,

and law enforcement
seized his camera from him--

which, in 16 years of
working on murder cases,

I have never heard that before.

The SBI stands for

the "North Carolina State
Bureau of Investigation."

What concerned me
about this case

was that they brought
in Agent Paul Songalewski,

who had never investigated
a homicide.

He's brought in whenever
there's a suspected suicide.

When you're approaching

any sort of death scene
investigation,

you want to make sure that
these are seasoned detectives

that know the importance

of preserving
the forensic evidence

to ensure
that it's not a homicide

that is staged
to look like a suicide.

Based on my investigation,

I feel strongly that

whoever made
that call to bring him in

wanted this investigation to be
steered a certain direction.

♪

In that part of the state,
particularly

all the way across
along the South Carolina line,

it's a belt that is known
for white supremacist history,

particularly during
the Civil Rights movement

because there was still
a very heavy KKK presence

and a lot of intimidation
by people

who were in positions
of power at that point.

But that isn't
ancient history,

and a lot of the people
involved in lynchings

and covering up the lynchings,
they're still around today,

some of which are still
in law enforcement

and their children
are in law enforcement.

- White power!

- This black community has felt

that law enforcement had not
been addressing its needs

for a long time in Bladenboro.

They had felt there was
a lot of police misconduct.

Between 2002-2006, there was
a large federal investigation

in Bladen County
and Robeson County

that led to the arrest
of police officers

who were actually
heavily involved

in narcotics trafficking.

They would also
pull over drivers

of African American descent.

They would harass them
for money,

take the money,
and then let them go,

and it would never
be documented.

So you had concerns

from the African American
community:

"Was there more to this story?
What happened?

This doesn't make sense."

As I started researching
black males

committing suicide in public,

and I realized there had been
almost 20 black males

found hanging in public parks
over just the last few years--

and when I realized

how quickly law enforcement
that responded to those scenes

deemed those deaths suicide,

I became quite concerned
that there may be

a bigger surreptitious
movement at play, here.

Evidence in this case
suggests that steps taken

by responding officers
and investigators

failed to meet even the
minimum accepted guidelines

and practices for death
scene investigations.

[camera shutters clicking]

That is a large part
of the reason

we have been compelled to ask
the U.S. Department of Justice

and the FBI to conduct
its own investigation

into the death
of Lennon Lacy.

Thank you.

[determined music]

- An autopsy for a Bladen
County teen found dead

in August shows
no indication of foul play.

- The response that occurred
in this case

and the investigation
which has followed

has been nothing
short of professional,

and I'm proud to be
a part of this outfit.

- The family certainly
don't think so,

and I have to say,
having been down there

and spent quite a bit of time
on this story...

- Yeah.
- It doesn't look

very professional to me.

[applause]

- We march today.
Why?

In the quest for one thing:
the truth about Lennon's death.

[crowd murmurs in approval]

- The medical examiner noted
that she was not presented

with any photographs
or dimensions

of that
swing set in question,

meaning that it was impossible
for her to know

with absolute certainty that
Lennon Lacy had hung himself.

- The last time Claudia Lacy
saw her 17 year-old son,

Lennon Lacy,

was around the time
he snapped this selfie.

The caption: "Last night pic
before the game."

- That does not sound like
a person that was planning

on killing himself.

State Bureau of Investigation
and Bladen Police

never searched his room
for a suicide note.

They never asked me
for his cell phone.

- Lacy says she told state
investigators the belts used

to fashion the noose
did not belong to Lennon.

And Lennon's family says
he left home that night

wearing size 12 Air Jordans,

but he was found wearing

these size 10 1/2
Air Force Ones.

- No one knows what happened
that terrible night,

August 28-29,

59 years to the day
after the death of Emmett Till.

[crowd murmurs approvingly]

- Local news covered a Ku Klux
Klan rally in a nearby county

just weeks before
Lennon's body was found.

- Go to work!

[shouts indistinctly]

- When I saw Lennon Lacy,

he looked as
if he'd been in a fight.

I've seen guys that I've
dealt with in mortuary science

that had been
in barroom fights,

and that's
what it looked like.

It looked like somebody

that had not survived
a barroom fight.

He had some bruises
along the side of his temple.

I saw lacerations.

He wasn't marked up here;

he was marked up on his forearm
on the outside,

consistent
with defending yourself.

I know this is a murder.

I believe it and understand it
and see it.

You know, I just thought
I was one of many

who'd come to
the clear understanding

of what had taken place here.

[cheers and applause]

- Claudia Lacy has a right
to refuse to be comforted.

She has a right.
Pierre has a right.

These young babies
have a right.

This community has a right
to demand more investigation

and refuse to be comforted
by easy answers.

This was...

this is her son.

crowd: That's right.

- We want you to hear his name.

Somebody say it. Lennon...
all: Lennon...

- Lacy.
all: Lacy!

- Lennon...
all: Lennon.

- Lacy!
all: Lacy!

- Lennon!
all: Lennon!

- Lacy!
all: Lacy!

- Lennon!
all: Lennon!

- Lacy!
all: Lacy!

- Lennon!
all: Lennon!

- Lacy!
all: Lacy!

- Justice!
all: Justice!

- Now!
all: Now!

- Don't be calm.
Be concerned.

A child has died!

[cheers and applause]

- When do you want it?
all: Now!

- What do you want?
all: Justice!

- When do you want it?
all: Now!

- What do you want?
all: Justice!

- When do you want it?
all: Now!

- The FBI has announced
that it will investigate

the case of Lennon Lacy

to determine whether
the 17 year-old's death

was a suicide or actually
the result of a lynching.

Lacy's family and friends
have been pushing

for the federal investigation.

The county coroner also says
he now questions

if it was a suicide.

- Lennon!
all: Lennon!

- Lacy!
all: Lacy!

- Lennon!
all: Lennon!

- Lacy!
all: Lacy!

- Lennon!
all: Lennon!

- Lacy!
all: Lacy!

[unsettling music]

[insects chirping]

- "October 26, 1934.

"To the Honorable
David Sholtz,

"governor,
Tallahassee, Florida.

"Associated Press
just informed us

"that a mob will take
Claude Neal,

"tie him to a stake,

"and permit the father
of the dead girl

"to light fire
to burn Neal to death.

"Stop.

"We urge upon you
to take immediate steps

"to rescue negro from mob
and place him in safe custody.

"Stop.

"Walter White, secretary,

"National Association

for the Advancement
of Colored People."

[wildlife chirping]

- Oh, well, we moved to Atlanta
before I turned three,

so I spent
my earliest years here.

And my Granddaddy Reeves
was a textile mill worker

in a textile mill
in north Georgia.

He raised five children
through the Great Depression,

and I found out many years
later from my grandmother

something
that I never would've guessed,

and that was that he had been,
at some point,

a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

And consequently I got involved
with a local organization

that monitored hate groups,

and I volunteered to do
infiltration work at rallies

and other gatherings

to see what kind of information
I could gather.

And that's when I realized

that Klan and white
supremacist groups in general

had undergone a metamorphosis.

You had newer groups

that were openly worshipful
of Adolf Hitler

and his whole ideology.

That indicated that we weren't
talking about a moribund group

that was going to fade away.

- While we're waiting
for the guys,

can you go through your speech
for us, please?

- It is posted online if youwant to get an idea of it,

and there's one pointat which one of the people

in the crowd will call out,

"What about those lyingAtlanta newspapers here?"

- Who's doing that?

We gonna stop right there.
Who's gonna do that?

- Well, we're looking forsomebody with a good voice--

The reason
why I felt called upon

to do the Governor Talmadge
speech at the reenactment

is that Eugene Talmadge was
essentially the Klan candidate

for governor here in Georgia.

When I discovered
that Governor Talmadge

had actually given one of his
race-baiting stump speeches

in Monroe, Georgia,

prior to the murders
at the ford,

I felt it was necessary
that we should have

a historically
accurate presentation

of exactly what the folks
in Monroe would've heard.

[crowd clamoring]

[cheers and applause]

[cheers and applause]
'Cause I am dedicated.

- Just want to remind you

that the poor dirt farmer's

got only three friends
on this earth.

That's God, Sears Roebuck,
and Eugene Talmadge.

And Eugene Talmadge.

This state was essentially run

on the basis of terrorism.

Until we come to grips
with the fact

that this has happened
repeatedly,

we're always going
to be in danger

of relapsing into
that kind of horror again,

and it seems to me,
as a son of the South,

that I have a responsibility
to do everything I can

to make sure
that doesn't happen.

[patriotic music playing]

♪

♪

- I grew up in Henry County.
Dad was Klan.

We had a big, black
Lincoln Mercury,

and Dad had a tall, red cross

that he mounted
on the hood of the car.

He had an extra battery
under the hood that ran it.

And when it was not in use,

it was stored in the closet
in my room.

My room was on the very
back part of the house,

and my closet
was the very smallest,

most personal, quiet place
in the house

that nobody was likely to look.

- ♪ The cross
in the wild... ♪

- My dad was part
of the command of the Klan.

He worked with Dr. Green.

We went to a lot of rallies,

a lot of bonfires,
a lot of parades.

A lot of the rallies
were at Stone Mountain.

At time,
it was kind of awesome.

You know, it was, like,
lights and action,

and there were a lot of
other children to play with.

That was fun.

But--but then it got
pretty scary too.

This was when they were
getting ready to go away

on their trip
after the wedding.

I knew the Talmadges.

My dad and Eugene
were friends,

so being one of the ladies

that supported the Talmadges
was really easy for me.

That wasn't something I had
to figure out how to do.

That's my favorite picture
of my mother.

My mother was kind
and gentle woman.

She didn't know how to deal
with my daddy either.

There're many times
that she's apologized,

after we got to be adults,

for the things she let us
be subjected to.

I was three years old
when I saw my father

and his friends
hang a black man.

[sinister music]

♪

It was late,

and the fire was roaring.

And the men were there
in their robes.

Mother and my sister
and I stayed in the car.

[crowd clamors,
fire crackles]

And then some of the men
arrived with the black man.

The Klan had
the man's hands bound.

I could tell there was
something wrong,

but I didn't understand what

until they hung him.

And when I saw it happening,

my mother reached around me
and put her hand over my mouth

and pulled me to her

so that I wouldn't
speak out loud.

It was hard to believe that
that was really my dad

and his friends that I knew

that ate fish
and hushpuppies at the house.

But it was.
It was the same people.

I never knew any of the details
except what I witnessed,

and I was too afraid to ask.

I never talked about it
until Daddy died.

- It's all drawn from stuff
that Talmadge actually said.

- Some of the people involved
in the reenactment

are involved in it
for the sheer purpose

of finding the guilty parties.

But for me,

something's going
to alter the conversation

we have about race,

and if it's a reenactment,
wonderful.

We all need to keep doing
whatever it is

we think will make
the difference.

- Well, who was--
who said they'd say,

"Four dead niggers
are better than one"?

John? No--
- No, that wasn't me.

- Not you.
Who's the one that said it?

Not you.

You need to talk to me.
Do you want to say it?

- Uh-uh.
- Okay. You scared me.

Okay, so I need somebody
that will say,

"Four dead niggers
are better than one."

You gonna say that?
Yeah, say that.

I mean, let's--yeah,
that makes it easier.

Okay, Roger?

[upbeat music]

♪

- Move it out.
Thank you.

Thank you for your cooperation.

We have over a hundred cars
in the motorcade.

- I'm Martha Dorsey.

My grandfather and George
were brothers.

- I wish I had came before,
but this is my first time.

And I am tremendously
enjoying myself

to learn about my history.

♪

- I don't know if it's
a good thing or not.

I appreciate
what they're doing,

and hopefully,
they'll eventually,

one day bring the remaining
killers to justice.

- The hurt is still there.

[overlapping chatter]

- We want that nigger Roger!

You is a dead man, boy.

- No!
- Take him down!

- Let them go!

This isn't right!
- [crying]

- Please give me everything
y'all got.

Every emotion.
Everything.

Okay?
- Yes, ma'am.

- Because these were people's
lives that were lost,

and I need
everything you all got.

Okay.

Action.

- All right, boys,
take 'em down there.

[women screaming]

[angry shouting]

[screaming continues]

- What are you doing?
[indistinct shouting]

- We're making an example to
all the niggers in Georgia.

You don't touch a white man.

- Leave Roger alone.
- What are you doing?

[screaming continues]

[gunfire]

- Let's go see. Check 'em out.
- Check the other one.

- Hold on.
All right, now.

- Roger!

[women gasping]

[gunfire continues]

- [screams]

[gunfire and screaming]

[woman sobbing,
final gunshot]

- That's victory for white
Christianity.

Good job.

- Whoo.
- Good job.

- Whoo-ee.
- Good job.

- Good work. Good work.
- That'll teach him!

That'll teach him!
- Where is he?

- That'll teach him.
- Good job, men.

[overlapping voices]

- Is this good, boss?

[crowd gasps]

- That's real nice, Johnny.
That's real nice.

- What'd he do?
- Pulled the baby out.

[actor cackling]

- That's why.
Because it's history.

To bring the history to them.

[mournful humming music]

♪

- "First they cut off
his penis,

and he was made to eat it."

[pigs squeal]

"Then they sliced his sides
and stomach with knives,

"and every now and then,

"somebody would cut
off a finger or a toe.

"From time to time, a rope
would be tied around his neck,

"and he was pulled over a limb

"and held there until
he almost choked to death.

After several hours, they
decided just to kill him."

♪

"Then the crowd came by,

"and some kicked him and some
drove their cars over him.

"After slashing and
shooting him into mincemeat,

"the mob hanged him on a tree

"on the east side
of the courthouse lawn.

"Photographers said they would
soon have pictures of the body

for sale at 50¢ each."

- I think what most people
have a hard time appreciating

is if you were black and alive
in many parts of this country

in the 20th century,
you were always at risk.

You were always a target.

You were always an object
to be victimized,

to be humiliated,
to be taunted,

to be sexually exploited,
to be killed.

And there was no respite.

There was never a moment
when you were allowed

to feel like you can be safe
for just a little while.

You were always in season.

♪

- Most black men were lynched
because they were accused

of having sexually assaulted
a white woman,

for murder or some violent act

committed
usually against a white man.

But sometimes it could just be
having violated the rules of,

you know,
not having tipped one's hat

or having left
the side of the street

when a white person
was walking past.

It could be being
regarded as uppity.

And it really involves
a process of dehumanization

that the black man had to be
physically restrained,

that he was over-sexualized,

that he was naturally
and inherently violent

or something
that's not human.

And it's this very insidious
process of dehumanization

that begins always with words

that allows
average individuals

to stand and watch

and to participate
and sometimes cheer

while another human being
is brutally murdered.

[applause]

♪

- I had taken a job over
at the grocery store

right here in the neighborhood
at the deli,

and I was waiting
on a customer,

and I had turned around
with his order,

and it dawned on me

as I looked
to the dining area that--

that somewhere in this crowd,
there is a murder,

and he knows what he's done--

or she or they.

And that day was the day
that I realized

there is still someone out here
that is responsible.

- Well, there's a lot of things
we would like to be able to do,

but with such a small staff,

there's things that we
just aren't able to do

because we still have
all the other things

going on in this county.

I have honestly not heard
anyone talking about the fact

of whether there's still
a murderer on the loose

in regards to this.

Honestly, I think that
the majority of the folks

have just come to grips
with the fact

that this is gonna be ruled
a suicide in the end.

It's been several months

since the one-year
anniversary of it.

But it's been quiet,

and everybody's just
kind of waiting now.

And I think the sooner,
the better

to get this behind us.

I honestly don't believe
that the investigation

has been lacking
from the very beginning.

I don't think that there's
been any kind of cover-up

by the local
law enforcement folks.

Nobody wants to believe
that their child

could do such a thing,

and I would probably want to
go to all ends of the Earth

to make sure that any and
all possible investigations

and questions were answered.

But to that end,
at some point you've got to--

you've got to realize that
they've done all they can.

There is another side
to the coin as far as,

you know, the family unit
and negligence

and that kind of thing.

You know, the fact
that this teenage boy at 15,

16 years old was involved

with a 30-year-old woman
in the neighborhood,

that he was regularly out after
midnight on school nights.

So those are
the kinds of things

that started to percolate

as this went on
during that first year.

- I was 32 when I met Lennon.

Lennon and I didn't really
look at our age difference.

From the time I met Lennon,

it felt like it was
meant to be.

I mean, you don't choose
who you fall in love with.

- Mm-hmm.
- Oh.

- Yeah.

This is the only thing
of his that I have left.

They came over and told me they
wanted everything of Lennon's.

So I hid this.

- So did you--did they take
everything but that?

- Yes.

♪

- His mother says 17-year-old
Lennon had been dating

a 32-year-old white woman.

The age of consent
in North Carolina is 16.

Still,

some people in this small
Southern town did not like it.

In the wake of his hanging,
some wondered if he was killed

because he was in
an interracial relationship.

- We never talked
about the race thing.

We talked about
the age thing...

because of the simple fact

I knew that she was
a woman of experience.

She had three kids of her own.

My son was not
compatible with her.

I said--
I asked her, as a mother--

I said,
"So you need to end this.

Either you end it,
or we will end it."

She continued to see him

as if I hadn't even said
anything to her about it.

- Michelle and Lennon were
involved about seven months,

but Lennon didn't want
nobody to know for a while

because that whole--
that whole Michelle situation,

I--I--I knew it was
too much for him.

There was still stuff

that I didn't know
about Michelle myself.

- I had left my husband.

My children and I had just
came back from Illinois

and moved back
to North Carolina.

I was living with
Trey's mother,

Carla Hudson and Dewey Sykes.

There was probably,
I would say,

a hundred feet at the most
from Lennon's back door

to Dewey Sykes
and Carla Hudson's door.

Lennon was always at Trey's
house whenever I was there.

The first time I met Lennon,

I didn't think
that he was a teenager.

He looked a lot older
than what--

what he was.

He carried himself
like a gentleman.

He came over with Trey,
and they was hanging out,

and I was there with Carla,
hanging out.

I think my kids
had went to bed,

and Trey,
he was probably in the bedroom

with his girlfriend.

He was always
in there with her.

And Lennon was always
out there with us.

And then he...

started
kissing me on my neck,

and that's how it started.

- Now, this is where
Lennon lived,

and we'd go to Trey's house

and play football, basketball,

anything you want to play.

Walk through this little path
right here.

This is where Trey
and them lived, right here.

The house would be right there
in front of them bushes.

Carla Hudson's and Dewey Sykes
and Trey Hudson's.

This is the front door.

I'm walking right here
in the front door.

You know what I'm saying?

I thought it was real funny.

After a couple months
after Lennon died,

they moved everything out
and left the pool.

Left their dead dog there.

You know what I'm saying?
I would've dug my dog up.

You feel me?
I'd at least dug my dog up.

But no, they moved
everything out. Fast, too.

Real quick,

like they were running away
from something.

You know what I'm saying?

- Look, look--
no, it's too late. Come on.

Yeah, man's in court.
[indistinct]

Probably shake hands
and all of that, man.

[drum music]

- Carla and Dewey Sykes
were pill poppers.

People would come and go,

buying and selling narcotics,

and I believe they even

supplied Michelle
with narcotics at times.

- There you go, Trey.

Work him! Work him! Work him!

- Hell, yeah!

- Dewey Sykes? Oh, he known
for being racist.

About 2005, he hung a KKK flag
right there on the fence.

Hung the flag right there
that said, "Don't tread on me."

Rebel flag. Stuff like that.
He was known for it.

- Dewey didn't like the fact
that I was seeing Lennon,

and he would use the N-word
more than often.

There was one night,
Lennon got upset,

and he walked out of
Carla Hudson's house

and Lennon punched the fence
and he broke the wood.

And Dewey had threatened
Lennon with a gun.

- Dewey Sykes had a cousin

that is on
the Bladenboro police force

but never seemed
to arrest his relatives

for the apparent
illegal activity

going on in their home.

That was the party spot.

[all shouting]

- What happened
at Carla's house

stayed at Carla's house,
basically.

It was like Las Vegas.

Yeah. [laughs] It was.

- Yeah, we was--Lennon and I
was committed to each other.

Yes. Yeah.

- Michelle Brimhall had
a drug problem,

and to support her drug habit,

she would have
quite a few companions,

and Lennon would
get very emotional

and upset about this.

They broke up in June.

He goes to Virginia,

spends a couple of weeks
with family, has a good time,

tries to get her
out of his head.

By the time he comes back,
he realized,

you know, she was still
seeing other people.

And even though
they had broken up,

I think Lennon was in love
with her,

and I think he felt
like this relationship

was going to turn
into something bigger.

But that night,
there was another man

that arrived at her house,

and his first name
was Maurice.

He does have
a criminal history.

Lennon saw Maurice
go into the house,

and he was quite distraught
about it.

- He was pacing from his house
and Trey's house.

Every now and then, he would
come back to the house

with different information
that Carla and Trey

was feeding him
about Michelle.

So it was kind of like
they were fueling the anger.

But in the process
of all of this going on,

he still was preparing
for the next day.

The last thing he pretty much
did was pack his bag

for football practice.

- I don't know what happened.

I've thought about it
and thought about it

and thought of
so many different things.

It doesn't make any sense

because Lennon has never done
anything to anybody.

I mean, who would want
to hurt him?

It's just--I don't know.

It doesn't make
any sense to me.

♪

- I don't know
what happened,

but I wish he came
and knocked on my window

and asked me to walk
on that night

instead of walking out alone.

- We have been very careful
to proceed

in the search for truth.

If Lennon was white

and found hanging

in a predominantly
black neighborhood,

would there have been a rush

to determine that the cause
of death was suicide?

What happens those first
few hours at a scene of death

has extraordinary impact

on how we are able
to ultimately find the truth.

They ought to be following the
standards of law enforcement

in every case regardless
of race, creed, class.

One standard of justice.

- Lawyers working on behalf of
Lennon's family had information

which they believed was
critical for our determination

which they did not want
to give the SBI.

- It's very disappointing that

instead of actually conducting
any investigation

that would've made any sort
of forensic testing fruitful

and reliable,

this district attorney allowed
rumors in the community

to become so rampant instead
of searching for the truth.

- I should not have had
to wait as long as I have

to get to the answers
that I wanted.

To me, that makes me think
there was something

that had to be fixed up,
doctored up.

Tell me.
Show it to me.

Your saying it means nothing
to me if you cannot prove it.

I want to know,I deserve to know,

and I have the right to know.

That's all I've askedfrom day one.

[thunder rumbling,
rain pattering]

[livestock chittering]

- "My mother was traumatized
when her brother,

"Claude Neal, was lynched.

"She went through total hell,

"and she put us
through total hell.

"She'd start talking about

"what the men did
to her brother.

"She smoked Camels
and drank moonshine.

"She'd kick her daughters

"and she'd make the kids
read the 23rd psalm out loud

"while she drank and cried.

"She just couldn't
take what happened.

"She would leave her
five children with relatives

"and disappear for months--
sometimes years.

"She'd return out of guilt
and whisk us off

"to some tiny house where
she'd try to make a home.

"When she was sober,
she was okay,

but she always slipped back
into dark places."

- One of the most disturbing
legacies of lynching

is generational trauma

within the black
and white communities.

And yet, very
different reactions

to the stories in the two
different communities.

Both communities were covered
in a shroud of silence:

blacks out of fear,
whites out of shame, I think,

and fear also.

And that silence
was never lifted,

and so people are acting out

in the context
of that passed-on relationship,

and they don't know
what's at the heart of it.

And there are
all these institutions

that need to come clean
about this history.

This is true
of the legal community.

It's true of journalism.
It's true across the board.

Communities for themselves
have to come together

and talk about what they think
would repair the harm.

But if, together,
we face that history,

it leads to an opening
for dialogue;

it leads to an opening
for reconciliation.

- Now, ladies and gentlemen,
that concludes the last scene.

We will return to
First African Baptist Church

for food and fellowship.

We have food waiting on you.

- The Moore's Ford
Memorial Committee

was started September of 1997.

We have a load of people here
for the reenactment,

but you can go around
and count the ones

from Walton County
that'd be there.

So this stigma does still
touch people in a negative way.

[somber piano music]

♪

Certain areas
of Walton County,

you can go
through these subdivisions,

and you look at the names
of the streets,

and it matches the names

that the FBI report
says are the suspects.

So it would really
be important

if we could get justice brought

on this particular case.

♪

If we get a break, you know,
I'll make sure

I've got your phone number
before you leave here,

and, you know,
I'd be willing to call you

and let you know
what's happening.

Hopefully, you know,
we'll have closure

on this thing pretty soon.

[cheers and applause]

- Is Reverend Sammy
still out here?

Tell him we want him to bring
some words of closure, prayer,

and a message.

♪

[pages flipping slowly]

[dignified vocalizations]

♪

- ♪ Precious

♪ Memories
- ♪ Precious memories

- ♪ How

♪ They linger

♪ Ah, how

♪ They ever
- ♪ Burn

- ♪ Burn my soul

♪ In

♪ The stillness

♪ Of

♪ The midnight

♪ Precious

♪ Secret

♪ Scenes unfold

♪ Ooh

- "The United States
Attorney's Office

"announced today that,
following its investigation

"into the death
of Lennon Lacy,

"there is no evidence
to pursue

"federal criminal
civil rights charges.

"Officials from
the Justice Department's

"civil rights division,

"the U.S. Attorney's Office

"with the Eastern District
of North Carolina,

"and the Federal Bureau
of Investigation met today

with Lennon Lacy's family to
inform them of this decision."

[vocalizations continue]

- ♪ Under

- "The FBI assessment
has confirmed

"my initial opinion

"that the investigation
conducted

"by the State Bureau
of Investigation

"and the Bladenboro Police
Department was complete,

"thorough, and professional.

"I would like to take
this opportunity to highlight

"the hard work and dedication
of the SBI special agent

"who went above
and beyond the call of duty

to see that justice
was done in this matter."

- ♪ Precious

♪ Memories

- [exhales loudly]

- ♪ How

♪ They linger

- "After a careful
and thorough review

"by a team of experts,

"the Justice Department
found no evidence to suggest

"that Lennon's death
was a homicide.

The investigation into
the incident has been closed."

One page for 17 years

of a person's life.

- Although the federal
authorities found

there was no evidence
of foul play,

that's not conclusive
that there was not foul play.

They're saying there was
no evidence of foul play.

[somber music]

♪

The biggest reason
that we're never gonna be able

to know the truth

is law enforcement just did
not do their job adequately.

It was a cursory investigation,

and they jumped
to a conclusion,

and that was all she wrote.

♪

- His friends, his neighbors,

the kids
that he interacted with

looked at me with disbelief.

That's what made me push.

And I'm gonna continue
until I get the answers

for them
as well as for myself.

The more people know about it,
that's my way of grieving.

The more they understand
and hear his story,

that's my way of grieving.

♪♪

♪♪