Suicide
"Black People Don't Hang Themselves" Is Both Right and Wrong
Why the response to Black suicides is historically accurate, and what we're missing.
Posted September 8, 2026 Reviewed by Gary Drevitch
Key points
- At least seven Black people have been found hanging under disputed circumstances in the U.S. in 2026 alone.
- Suicide deaths among Black Americans rose 53% from 2014 to 2024, far outpacing every other group.
- Racism operates as chronic stress, driving suicide risk along with hypertension, stroke, and early death.
I was mid-lecture in my undergraduate community psychology class the week the Raleigh case broke. I was standing at the front of the room talking about ambiguous loss and retaliation killings, of all things, when a student's phone lit up with a headline about a young Black man found hanging near a downtown parking lot, just blocks from a Caribbean festival. By the time class ended, three more students had pulled it up and we were in a full-on discussion. Within the hour, my own timeline was full of stories about and responses to the discovery of the Charlotte teenager with a ratchet strap around her neck, 10 days after she went missing. Then, the familiar sting when we realized that no autopsy was ordered. We talked about the Delta State student whose family fought for a second look. We talked about the six, maybe seven, more that we had seen either on the news or on social media in 2026.
And right alongside the grief, the same response started appearing everywhere: "Black people don't hang themselves." Ms. Rachel said it out loud on video. I heard it on one of my favorite podcasts, and it was even said in a group chat that is typically reserved for humor but was not exempt from this tough conversation.
I get why we say it. "Black people don't hang themselves” is said not out of paranoia, but due to a harsh reality of racism in our distant and recent history. Lynching is inside the bodies of our country, and it’s alive in people who are still here, passed down through generations of stories and repeated experiences. When Black bodies show up hanging in public spaces and cases are closed in 72 hours with no autopsy, no phone recovered, no interview with the person who found the body, and seemingly no questions asked (as some reporters suggest happened in the Charlotte case), communities are not being paranoid, suspicious, or irrational when they ask questions.
Families like Nolan Wells’s and Trey Reed's pursuing independent autopsies, and organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense Fund calling for transparency, represent us doing the due diligence the justice system has failed to do, not us participating in or fueling some unwarranted conspiracy. Most of these cases genuinely deserve more scrutiny than they receive.
As a clinician who has spent two decades in this work, here's where the nuance comes in for me: While we've been organizing around the deaths we suspect are homicides, I don’t want us to stop talking about how suicide is actually a real threat to the Black community as well.
Because the numbers are not small, and they are not stable. They are rising at alarming rates.
Between 2014 and 2024, the suicide death rate among Black Americans climbed 53%, which is more than 10 times faster than the rate for white Americans over the same decade. Black boys and young men are now dying by suicide at a rate that outpaces white boys and young men in the same age range, something that would have been almost unthinkable a generation ago. The crisis peaks between ages 20 and 24. Earlier CDC data showed that suicide among Black youth ages 10 to 24 jumped by more than a third in just three years.
I train clinicians for a living. I've sat across from more than one brilliant, high-functioning Black graduate student who showed up early, over-prepared, and never asked for a deadline extension; and I watched them minimize their own suicidal thoughts because some part of them had absorbed the same myth we're now shouting online: "I'm not the type" or "We don't do that." I've had to gently and directly ask the question anyway, every time, because the data and my own clinical experience tells me the myth is now more dangerous than the stigma it was supposed to protect us from.
So, I want us to hold space for knowing that both things can be true at once. Yes, some of these public hanging deaths deserve more independent investigation and attention, and families are right to demand it. And also: Racism is killing us through channels we're far more comfortable naming as murder than as slow violence. The chronic stress of discrimination is linked to hypertension, stroke, and accelerated biological aging. Black maternal mortality remains a national emergency. Police violence shortens life expectancy for entire communities, not just the people directly harmed. Suicide is one more branch on that same tree: racial trauma, untreated depression, and a mental health system that still doesn't reach us the way it should, all converging.
Denying that suicide happens to us doesn't protect us. It just means fewer of us get help before it's too late.
So this Suicide Prevention Month, I'm asking you to hold both truths in the same hand. Keep asking hard questions about the cases that don't add up. And also check on your strong friend, your high-achieving cousin, or the deacon who never misses a Sunday. Ask directly, "Are you OK? Are you thinking about hurting yourself?" As a clinician, mother, aunt, and friend, I promise you, directness saves lives, it doesn't plant ideas. Save 988 in your phone right now, not when you think you or a friend will need it.
We don't have to choose between grieving what might be lynching and grieving what is suicide. Both are killing us. Both deserve our full attention.
If you or someone you love is contemplating suicide, seek help immediately. For help 24/7 dial 988 for the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting TALK to 741741. To find a therapist near you, visit the Psychology Today Therapy Directory.
References
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics. “QuickStats: Suicide Rates, by Race and Hispanic Origin.” cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db450.htm
KFF. “Suicide Deaths: National Trends and Variation by Demographics and States,” February 2026. kff.org/mental-health/suicide-deaths-national-trends-and-variation-by-demographics-and-states
CapitalB News. “Young Black Men Are Now Dying by Suicide at a Historic Rate,” June 2026. capitalbnews.org/young-black-men-suicide-rates
Andscape. “Suicide Rates Among Black Americans Are Increasing by Double Digits.” andscape.com/features/suicide-rates-among-black-americans-are-increasing-by-double-digits
Atlanta Black Star. “Police Investigating Black Man's Hanging as a Suicide,” August 2026 (seven-case count). atlantablackstar.com/2026/08/17/police-investigating-black-mans-hanging-as-a-suicide
Triangle Tribune. “Black Man Found Hanging in Downtown Raleigh Called a Suicide.” triangletribune.com/news/2026/08/18/local/black-man-found-hanging-in-downtown-raleigh-called-a-suicide
Fox News. “Ms. Rachel Speaks Out on Black Hanging Cases as Raleigh Death Is Declared Suicide.” foxnews.com/media/ms-rachel-speaks-out-black-hanging-cases-raleigh-death-declared-suicide
The Grio. “Family and Community Question Suicide Ruling in Death of Black Teen Found Hanged in Charlotte. thegrio.com/2026/07/27/juliana-nzita-charlotte-teen-hanging-suicide-questions
Atlanta Black Star. “‘We Still Have Questions’: Family of Black Charlotte Teen Found Hanging Push for More Answers.” atlantablackstar.com/2026/07/28/family-of-black-charlotte-teen-found-hanging-push-for-more-answers-as-new-records-surface
theGrio. “‘Black lives are being undervalued’: NAACP Legal Defense Fund calls for federal, U.N. investigations into suspicious deaths of Black people,” August 2026. thegrio.com/2026/08/26/black-lives-are-being-undervalued-naacp-legal-defense-fund-calls-for-federal-u-n-investigations-into-suspicious-deaths-of-black-people
CNN. “Nolan Wells: What Experts Say Could Happen Next in the Investigation,” July 2026. cnn.com/2026/07/23/us/nolan-wells-autopsy-investigation