A Black activist named Vauhxx Rush Booker of Bloomington, Indiana said he was “almost the victim of an attempted lynching” on the Fourth of July in a Facebook post on his personal account. Booker recounted the event and shared videos to his Facebook on July 5 in a post which has since gone viral.
Booker says: “I don’t want to recount this, but I was almost the victim of an attempted lynching. I don’t want this to have happened to me or anyone. It hurts my soul, and my pride, but there are multiple witnesses and it can’t be hidden or avoided. On July 4th evening others and me were victims of what I would describe as a hate crime. I was attacked by five white men (with confederate flags) who literally threatened to lynch me in front of numerous witnesses.”
Booker says the attack resulted in a small concussion, abrasions, bruising and patches from where his hair was ripped out.
You can read his full account and view the videos below.
Booker posted three videos of the altercations that ensued and provided information to contact Monroe County Prosecutor Erika Oliphant to “bring these individuals to justice,” after he says the Indiana Department of Natural Resources “refused to arrest any of these individuals, even with multiple the witnesses several who filmed the event and collaborated our accounts. Instead the officers stated they contacted the Prosecutor’s office who relayed there was no immediate need to arrest anyone, and that the officers would simply file a report.”
We reached out to Oliphant to discuss the matter and her email issued this auto response regarding Booker, saying the Indiana Conservation Officers are “actively and thoroughly investigating the events” and once her office has received the completed investigation and associated media, she will review those materials and “make charging decisions.”
According to a June 22 story in The Washington Post, four black people had been found hanged in trees in the past month in California, New York and Texas. Authorities have ruled all suicides, but family members and activists are suspicious, the paper says, with rumors of lynchings “swirling on social media.”
This article appears in The Summer Guide.