Questions Swirl After Fla. Hanging

Not long after the family of Feraris "Ray" Golden found his dead body dangling from a tree outside his grandmother's home, ugly suspicions began to surface.

Police concluded Golden committed suicide, hanging himself with a work shirt as a noose. But relatives say that's impossible; they claim the 32-year-old, who was black, was found with his hands tied behind his back.

Rumors began swirling that Ray Golden was lynched.

Friends say Golden was dating a white policeman's daughter in this rural farming community of about 15,000, divided almost equally between black and white residents.

The uneasiness after his death in May became so rampant that NAACP leaders called for an inquest into the lynching rumors.

"We're not saying it's a homicide. We're not saying it's a suicide. We just think there are some questions that need to be answered," said Linda Johnson, the local president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

The state attorney agreed to hold an inquest Monday to publicly air the community's concerns and the circumstances surrounding Golden's death. Police, medical examiners and others believed to have knowledge of the death are expected to testify.

A death by lynching hasn't been documented for more than two decades, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. But the heated reaction to Golden's death underscores the racial divide still present in Belle Glade and many small communities in the Deep South, where accusations of lynching occasionally surface.

Three years ago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson and the family of a black teenager called for repeated investigations into the boy's hanging death in Kokomo, Miss. Investigators ultimately ruled out foul play.

"We've seen a number of these cases where claims have been made and have not been substantiated," said Mark Potok, editor of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Reports. "I would simply caution people to be very careful if they assume lynching or even murder until the facts are in."

Belle Glade police chief Michael Miller said the investigation and autopsy point to suicide. A police video shows officers cutting down Golden's body with his hands at his sides.

"It's a small town and when those things happen, rumors fly," Miller said.

But investigators' conclusions mean little to a black community that's distrustful of the police and reluctant to believe Golden committed suicide.

"He ain't the kind to do that to himself. He wasn't the type to let things bother him," said James Federick, 27, who knew Golden for the past 15 years. "Somebody did that to him."

Family members initially said they didn't believe Golden took his own life, but they have since refused to talk about the case, saying they'll wait to hear the facts at the inquest.

Police have said publicly that Golden was troubled and told family members he planned to kill himself.

Lynchings reached their peak in the United States from the end of the Civil War until 1902, numbering more than 100 each year, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. The numbers dropped to double digits until 1935, when the average dropped again to a few a year until the 1960s.

In Belle Glade, a poor agricultural community surrounded by sugar cane fields and the Everglades, life for many has been the same for decades. Developers have passed over the city, preferring to fill the South Florida coastline 40 miles to the east, despite the town's efforts to bring new jobs and development.

The concrete block homes lining the street where Golden died were built in the 1950s, and don't appear to have changed much since then.

"I think a lot of people are still stuck on the old days," Federick said. "A lot of people try and hide it, but it's still here."

Curtis Thompson Jr., a realtor who recently ran unsuccessfully for City Commission, said he doesn't see a racial divide. But he believes people stick to their circles of family and friends - just like they do in any small town.

"There's limited integration in churches and things of that sort. Pretty much you go with your group and that's it," said Thompson, who is white and lost the election to a woman who restored a black majority on the commission.

Thompson called the inquest "a waste of time and money."

The case has drawn the attention of state and national NAACP officials, who will monitor the inquest. In her letter calling for an investigation, Johnson said the case "has caused the resurrection of a part of this country's history that is excluded from most history books."

Immediately after the hearing, Circuit Judge Harold Cohen will rule whether it was a suicide or a suspicious death. He could direct a law enforcement agency to act on his findings.

"We're at a point where we're trying to heal the community," Johnson said. "The inquest is to reach a point of understanding."

By Jill Barton