Film on NC teen’s hanging death - and his family’s search for answers - to air on PBS
A documentary about the death of a black North Carolina teen and his family’s hunt for answers will air on PBS.
In 2014, 17-year-old Lennon Lacy was found dead, hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, The News & Observer previously reported.
Local authorities ruled the high school football player’s death a suicide, and an 18-month-long federal investigation found no evidence of a homicide. But his family and others believe he was murdered.
Claudia Lacy, Lennon’s mother, told ABC11, The News & Observer’s media partner, that she thinks her son was killed because he was black and dating a white woman.
“It was not a suicide, it was hanging,” she told ABC11. “It was meant to send a message: you are not to cross racial lines. This is not right. That’s why I pursued it the way I did. God gave me the insight to know to push it, there’s something else here.”
The death was investigated by federal authorities after the NAACP and others got involved and fought for a more comprehensive investigation, The News & Observer reported.
The story of Lennon’s death, which made international headlines, and his family’s search for answers was featured in the documentary “Always in Season.”
The film, directed by filmmaker and producer Jacqueline Olive, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2019 and won the Special Jury Prize for Moral Urgency, according to PBS.
Now the documentary is set to air on PBS at 10 p.m. EST on Feb. 24.
“The film chronicles Claudia’s quest to learn the truth and takes a closer look at the lingering impact of more than a century of lynching African Americans and connects the dots to show us America’s history of lynching isn’t history at all,” the PBS website says.
The documentary has won awards from the Dallas International Film Festival, the Riverrun International Film Festival and the Vera Institute of Justice, according to PBS. It was also nominated for the International Documentary Association’s best writing award.
Claudia Lacy went to Sundance when the film premiered, ABC11 reports, and she says people need to see it because it tells the truth.
“It tells the story past what happened ... things that have been hidden that have come to light,” she told ABC11.
This story was originally published February 19, 2020 at 6:34 PM with the headline "Film on NC teen’s hanging death - and his family’s search for answers - to air on PBS."
