Black Teenager Found Hanged; Probe Is Urged

A black teenager who was found hanging from a tree in his frontyard in what investigators ruled a suicide may instead have been lynched for dating two white girls, the Rev. Jesse Jackson said Tuesday.

Jackson asked Gov. Ronnie Musgrove and the U.S. Justice Department to launch an investigation into the death of 17-year-old Raynard Johnson.

Standing under the pecan tree where Raynard’s body was found by his father June 15, the civil rights leader said that the death “had the smell of Emmett Till all around it.” Till was a black teenager killed in Mississippi in 1955 for supposedly whistling at a white woman.

“The two young white girls and Johnson had been dating each other; that did not sit well with some people,” Jackson said.

The Marion County coroner’s office concluded that the honor student took his own life.

Deborah Madden, an FBI spokeswoman in Jackson, said the bureau is investigating and will forward its findings to the Justice Department. District Atty. Claiborne McDonald said his office is still investigating.

Kokomo is a racially mixed rural community.

Family members have insisted there was foul play, claiming the belt used in the hanging did not belong to Raynard.

Maria Johnson, his mother, said she contacted Jackson because she felt the local investigation was getting nowhere.

“I know that my son did not do this to himself,” Johnson said.

Jackson attended Raynard’s funeral Tuesday.