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The community, though, isn't buying the police's story and claims that he was actually murdered.
The Final Call is reporting on the death of Carter, and even Michael Pimbleton Jr., the mayor of Sunflower, Miss., said there is more going on than meets the eye:
"This is 2010 and we still have black people hanging from trees? They're saying he hung himself, but I have doubt in my mind that he actually did that. That wasn't his character. This wasn't a suicide, this was a homicide," Mayor Pembleton said to The Final Call.
Carter was found on December 3, with his body hanging from an oak tree in North Greenwood, which is a predominantly white section of Leflore County. He actually lived in nearby Sunflower County, and North Greenwood is known as an area that black people are sometimes afraid to visit. Carter was with his stepfather, who said that he wandered off from an area in which they were both working.
County Sheriff Ricky Banks told the media that a mental condition led to Carter drifting off and hanging himself. He also said that there is no evidence that there was a crime committed, but the community is outraged that the location of Carter's death was never taped off as a crime scene and they also believe that the investigation was inadequate.
"Because there has been no investigation on the part of the local officials in to this as a crime, we're calling on the federal government to conduct an independent investigation. We want the U.S. Justice Department to look in to this," attorney Valerie Hicks Powe said to The Final Call.
Greenwood has a stain on its national reputation when it comes to aggressive behavior toward African Americans.
Just 10 miles north of the town is where Emmett Till was murdered in 1955. Till's alleged killers were acquitted of the crime, even though the boy was shot in the head and had his eyes gouged out. Till's attackers were angry that he'd allegedly whistled at a white woman.
Mississippi is a state that stubbornly hangs on to its racist roots, with the state's governor, Haley Barbour, tossing some of the nastiest, most unprofessional and aggressive insults at President Barack Obama.
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Carter's family denies that he has a mental problem. They also want an independent autopsy and outside investigation. State Senator David Jordan has offered to help the family, claiming that he doesn't buy the story being presented by authorities either:
"There are a lot of unanswered questions. He reportedly had rope in his pocket but didn't have anything to cut it with? Why wasn't the scene of the crime blocked off? That tree limb is nearly 12 feet high. I'm 6'2" and I can't see how I could maneuver to do that, so how could a boy his height hang himself like that?" said Jordan.
The mysterious death of Frederick Jermaine Carter shows all the classic signs of significant injustice.
Given the history of Mississippi as it pertains to African Americans in the justice system (both as victims and perpetrators), it is quite conceivable that authorities are misleading the public. Small town justice can be fickle, particularly in the South.
I wouldn't be surprised if officers were covering for a family member of a prominent city official or somehow felt that their activities would escape the scrutiny of the broader American public. When we were involved with the case of Heather Ellis, the college student who was nearly sentenced to 15 years in prison after cutting a line at Wal-Mart, I received an enlightening education on how justice is delivered to African Americans in tiny, historically racist towns.
While it is not a foregone conclusion that local authorities are engaged in a cover up, it is abundantly clear that they did not conduct an investigation that is thorough enough to satisfy Carter's family.
Given the lack of credibility of the Mississippi justice system and the questionable nature of this crime, it is fully expected that outside officials engage in further analysis of what happened to this young man. If Carter really did commit suicide, then the sheriff has no reason to be concerned, so he should be the first to support further probing.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action Resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce commentary delivered to your email, please click here. 
Comments: (138)
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By: intimatehouse on 1/21/2011 1:39PM
Law enforcement officers of the colonial period
had the upper hand during the colonial era of slavery. They were perpetrators of a multitude of
crimes when it came to black citizens. Again, this is a new day and time whether irrational folk
want to accept it or not. If Carter's family claim
that he did not have a mental disorder to take his
own life, then I am more prone to believe them over
the statement of what the local authorities claim.
Let's fact facts, there will always be white copy-
cats from the ancient days of Jim Crow. We see
it displayed against blacks on a daily basis on
the media, print media, as well as the internet.
Mr. Carter's death definitely needs to be investig-
ated over the voice of the local authorities, and
the previous history of Mississippi when it comes
to blacks.
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By: SAY WHAT! on 1/21/2011 3:30PM
It was a sucide, NO WAIT a lynching,
It was a sucide, NO WAIT a lynching,
It was a sucide, NO WAIT a lynching,
It was a sucide, NO WAIT a lynching,
It was a sucide, NO WAIT a lynching,
It was a sucide, NO WAIT a lynching,
I'm all confused because I wasn't there
Let's wait til' some facts come out.
We'll make a decision then wether to apologize for being wrong or burn down one of the cities we live in.
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By: Charles McGee on 1/21/2011 2:42PM
Negro History Month is coming soon. Why not go to Greenwood and support our Brothers and Sisters? Visit with them, spend some money with them, fellowship with them and let it be known that there is a remedy that we can execute, if so chosen. That would be an effective strategy. I am out of arguing with White law enforcement about our business.
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By: bugs hunter on 1/23/2011 10:28AM
@ SAY WHAT...
your "lowest rating" is indicative of your thinking and how STUPID you are!...carry on!.. you and quigley!
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By: SAY WHAT! on 1/25/2011 7:38AM
My previous post was made prior to the photo being posted and was not specifically directed at this particular person or unfortunate incident.
This is a serious issue and I feel for the family that they may find peace.
But, how ignorant and insensitive a decision to post the photo.
Ignorant because it could interfere with an investigation and obviously insensitive toward the family of the man.
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By: Rodger Green on 1/21/2011 2:32PM
From the pictures I saw in the "Final Call", NO ONE COULD DO THIS TO THEMSELVES. The fact that none of the major media have chosen to cover this is a story in itself.
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By: James Gadson on 1/21/2011 6:44PM
I agree with Roger Green about the corporate media not covering this. Many of the violent and racist crimes perpetrated against 'blacks' are not covered and covered up.
The police, the governments federal, state, and local are all top heavy 'white'. The corporations are all 'white supremacy' execs.
The country shows itself to be a vile, vicious and racist country in nearly everything it does, and when they want something to look like it isn't they do things like put a 'black' man into office as a facade for their deviousness.
Considering the number of black people murdered and incarcerated by this racist society every year nothing is as they say it is, and they are never to be trusted. If you accept what these dangerous police in any part of the country say you are a fool.
This young man did not hang himself, the evidence has been botched on purpose and no one will do this case justice because 'blacks' are not respected, nor feared in this country.
I knew that having a 'black' as president would not make our lives better but that it would make things worse for us and other people of color all over the world.
The game they play on us is a strong one and it can involve traitors and haters of all ilks.
This young man Frederick Jermaine Carter was murdered and that's it. He is gone, his family will not be able to receive wrongful death payment for this tragedy and whites will continue to deny anything that appears to be discriminatory, negative or racist toward us as they screw us in our face, and often with the help of those who look like us.
Now in this country we can barely trust our own so what would it look like trusting white police departments, White government officials, white institutions, and sometimes even white churches?
We are taught to love, but love is supposed to be two-sided not half-assed and one-sided.
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By: rick on 1/23/2011 4:38AM
Lord someone other than say what please tell me why this happened way back in dec and it's wasn't on the national news. I guess the whites were right when they decided to get guns when president Obama was elected. This can't be allowed to die out like other stories. We as black americans and all clear thinking americans owe it to this young man and his family to find out what happen here. FOX NEWS where are you?
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By: Monica Davis on 1/24/2011 8:59AM
Black folk were lynched by the thousands: many of these lynchings were reported--some of the victims simply "disappeared". Check out the case of Roy Veal, the veteran who was lynched after beginning to investigate his family's land rights. Those families whose members were lynched often erased his/her memory from their minds--as was the case of one woman who moved north--her grandaughter always wanted to know who was in the picture her grandmother had on her mantle. The woman never talked about it. Turned out it was her brother who was lynched. Farmers and landowners were lynched in the south by the thousands. For information about current and historic land lynching,particularly land lynching by the USDA which has been stealing black farm land by document deception and forgery, see my book:
Land, Legacy and Lynching: Building the Future in Black America (book) http://www.lulu.com/davis4000_2000
Print: $21.95
Download: $7.50
A century ago, the segregated South had a deep secret--black farmers owned the majority of farmland in the region. Then came the 1910 Census results along with an organized effort to drive black farmers off the land. Through lynching and intimidation, and predatory use of federal farm loan programs, hundreds of thousands of black farmers, 90% of African-American farmers, were driven from the land through a 60 year orgy of lynching, murder, intimidation and theft. Many found refuge in factory towns and became middle class through factory work, especially in the auto industry. Others gathered in segregated ghettos in the nation's urban hell holes and continue to fuel the nation's prisons. Many claim the goal of federal farm policy is to drive family farmers out of business in favor of corporate agri-businesses.
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By: Charles McGee on 1/21/2011 2:42PM
Friends and neighbors, we know Mississippi from when my Father's parents left the Mississippi Delta in 1890s, for Oklahoma. That was part of the McCabe Movement. Negro History Month is coming and we need to gather in Greenwood and celebrate our understanding of our journey. Many of us whose
Foreparents relocated from Mississippi need to take note of what they can bring to our Sisters and Brothers. This would be about us, not about the others.
In closing, I would offer that nothing said by Haley Barbour is as toxic as what I say daily about Barack H. Obama. I am quite sure that Barbour sees Obama as more his President than do I. Do not mix apples and oranges. Let's go to MS.
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