A Black student was found hanging from a tree. Police say there’s no sign of foul play

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Police on Tuesday were investigating the death of a Black college student found hanging from a tree on the campus of Delta State University in Mississippi, stirring online rumors that evoked the state’s history of Jim Crow-era racist violence even as authorities said there was no initial evidence of a crime.

The campus police chief said there are no signs of foul play in the death of the 21-year-old student, whose body was discovered by a staff member early Monday near the campus pickleball courts.

Delta State Police Chief Michael Peeler said there was also no evidence of an ongoing threat to students and faculty. He told reporters Monday the death investigation was being assisted by the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation as well as local police and sheriff’s deputies.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump announced Tuesday that he has been retained by the student’s family and will undertake an independent investigation into the death.

“We cannot accept vague conclusions when so many questions remain,” Crump said in a statement. “I stand with this family, and I will lead a team of civil rights leaders and organizations in pursuing transparency and answers.”

Meanwhile, U.S. Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, called for the FBI to investigate.

“The FBI has the tools and experience necessary to conduct a thorough, unbiased inquiry, and time is of the essence,” Thompson said in a statement.

Delta State said it planned a news conference Wednesday with state and local law enforcement agencies.

Online rumors that the student was found with broken limbs were disputed by Bolivar County Coroner Randolph Seals Jr. In a statement cited by local news outlets, Seals said his office conducted a preliminary examination and concluded the student did not suffer any lacerations, contusions, compound fractures, broken bones or injuries consistent with an assault.

The coroner did not immediately return phone messages Tuesday from The Associated Press.

Attempts to reach the student’s family weren’t immediately successful. A woman identifying herself as a cousin told the AP in an online message that the family wasn’t speaking to reporters. Two others who said they were distant relatives declined to comment when reached by phone.

In a video posted Tuesday to the university’s Facebook page, Delta State President Dan Ennis said the university was resuming operations while continuing to mourn. He said campus officials were staying in touch with the student’s family.

“We know that we can never fully heal this wound,” Ennis said. “We continue to cooperate with investigators. We continue to make sure that all the information necessary is given to authorities. And we continue to hope for answers.”

Classes were canceled Monday at the university, as were events to celebrate the 100th anniversary of its opening as Delta State Teachers College in September 1925.

Located in the heart of the Mississippi Delta near the Arkansas state line, Delta State had a fall 2024 enrollment of more than 2,600 students, 42% of them Black.

Numerous social media posts about the case evoked a darker period in U.S. history when killings of Black people, almost exclusively at the hands of white male vigilantes, inflicted racial terror in Mississippi and other parts of the Deep South.

The Delta State campus in Cleveland is located only about 30 miles (48 kilometers) from a site closely associated with the infamous lynching of Emmett Till. A sign at the Tallahatchie River landing near Glendora commemorates the discovery 70 years ago of Till’s mutilated body in the water.

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AP journalist Russ Bynum in Savannah, Georgia, contributed.