IMPACT Magazine was in Washington, D.C. to ask a question that can no longer be treated as rhetorical: What happens when Black deaths are repeatedly classified as isolated incidents, while the evidence points to a larger pattern?
As part of the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation’s Annual Legislative Conference, “STOP THE LYNCHINGS: A Panel Conversation” continued the national conversation around recent hanging deaths in the Black community and the questions surrounding how these deaths are investigated and classified.
Convened by Attorney Lee Merritt and Dr. Jamal Bryant, the forum brought together leaders across law, media, politics, mental health, education, medicine, civil rights, and journalism.
April Ryan, Charles F. Coleman Jr., and and AJ Calloway moderated discussions with Dr. Alfiee Breland-Noble, Dr. Isha Metzger, Dean Michael Lindsey, Dr. Michael H. Forde, Dr. Henry Willis, Dr. Natasha Pratt-Harris, Jill Collen Jefferson, Dr. Roger A. Mitchell Jr., and Tunisha Brown.
At the center of the conversation was a question that can no longer be treated as rhetorical:
What happens when Black deaths are repeatedly classified as isolated incidents while the evidence points to a larger pattern?
Jill Collen Jefferson, founder of JULIAN and author of The Crimson Record, has built a documented record of more than 70 suspected modern-day lynchings across seven Southern states between 2000 and 2025.
Inspired by the historic documentation of Ida B. Wells, The Crimson Record gives investigators, families, journalists, lawmakers, and the public a body of evidence from which patterns can be examined.
Her work is why this nation has a documented record from which to recognize the patterns connecting these deaths, rather than continuing to treat them as isolated incidents.
For IMPACT, this conversation represents the work we committed ourselves to doing: moving beyond reaction and becoming an institution of analysis.
We were invited into this room to document what is happening, examine the systems surrounding it, and ask what accountability requires.
Now, the question is what happens next, because documentation is not the end of the work, It is where accountability begins.
Don’t just watch. Become involved. Stay tuned for more information on what’s next.
We think. We be. We build.
