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Lynchings Disguised as Suicides
Beginning in the 1920s, many lynchings were committed out of the public eye to avoid scrutiny and negative publicity for whites in the communities where they occurred, which historian Brent M.S. Campney calls "underground" lynchings. Further research undertaken by The Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project at Northeastern University shows that these deaths were sometimes labeled suicides. In these cases, a white authority figure would declare the death a suicide even under circumstances involving multiple witnesses, such as the killing of Ab Young, which was witnessed and photographed by reporters. Historian Jay Driskell argues that the deaths were declared suicides to prevent prosecution of police officers or community members or to allow police officers to not perform an investigation.