Content warning: This post describes racial violence and mentions suicide. Please take care while reading.
Javion McGee died on Sept. 11 and was found hanging from a tree near Hendersonville, NC, in what local authorities ruled was a suicide. The 21-year-old Chicago truck driver's family have taken to social media, however, to allege McGee may have been murdered. Online comments suggest that McGee was lynched.
News of what happened emerged in a TikTok post from scottieprimpin, who identifies herself as McGee's cousin. Another X post from Pier Jarae, a woman who says she's McGee's cousin, shared scottie's TikTok post. In it, scottie says that McGee was from Illinois, and a trucking route brought him to the Henderson area.
According to Scottie, police have told McGee's family that he bought the rope at a local Walmart, but they don't believe the official narrative. It's unclear how local police confirmed the rope story.
In her post, Scottie also says McGee's death has received very little media coverage of what actually happened, and McGee's family is asking for help sharing the news. Allegedly, local officials aren't cooperating with McGee's family, and haven't allowed his mother to identify his body, citing COVID concerns. Scottie says the police then told McGee's mother that they would need permission from McGee's father to allow her to see Javion.
In response, McGee's mother asked to see pictures of Javion's body. Authorities agreed at first, Scottie says, but then backtracked, telling his mother she wouldn't want to see her son's body in its current condition, which his family found suspicious. "We obviously don't believe that, and we are just asking for your help to push his story out there," Scottie says.
Scottieprimpin's post has gone viral, as online comments allege that Henderson is a "sundown town." Blackpast, a website dedicated to African American history, defines sundown towns as "all-white communities, neighborhoods, or counties that exclude Blacks and other minorities through the use of discriminatory laws, harassment, and threats or use of violence. The name derives from the posted and verbal warnings issued to Blacks that although they might be allowed to work or travel in a community during the daytime, they must leave by sundown." There is no publicly available information confirming Henderson's sundown town status, and reports that Henderson is a sundown town have been denied in unconfirmed posts on social media.
Posts do say, however, that racial violence is a problem in rural North Carolina, both historically and currently. The recent conviction of Marian Hudak for hate crimes against Black and Hispanic men in Concord, NC, and the 2020 firing of three Wilmington police officers for racist remarks caught on tape, including former officer Kevin Piner's threat that "We are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them f -- -- N-words. I can't wait" are two high-profile instances of violent racism in North Carolina that wouldn't be out of place in the Jim Crow era.
The city of Henderson, meanwhile, seemed to refer to the McGee controversy in the following statement posted on X,
This week, there was an investigation on Vanco Mill Rd by the Vance County Sheriff's Office. The incident did not occur in the City of Henderson and does not have any involvement with the Henderson Police Department. Vance County Sheriff's Department is the jurisdictional agency."
Questions remain about Javion McGee's death, and at this writing, there is very little local or national news coverage of the story. The City of Henderson's social media comments mention McGee's death, demanding answers. However, some online commenters doubt the story is real, due to a lack of news coverage or confirmed or verifiable public information. One comment claimed McGee has no presence on social media.
Another comment alleged, "For the past few years in NC there's been a string of black boys/men being found hanging and police have ruled it suicide and refused to investigate. #Police need to stop using that as a cause of death!!!! Please share this!!!!!"
Another comment added, "Wait a damn second, FBI needs to investigate the police in N.C. because this happened with another young black truck driver back in 2019. I don't think it's a coincidence!!!" In 2019, the Atlanta Black Star reported that 21-year-old Taemon Blair was found hanged in North Carolina, in what police ruled a suicide. Blair's family suspected foul play.