|
|
NATIONAL
|
 |
 |
|
|
Leonard Gakinya
Credit: Rosemary Stewart-Stafford
|
|
FBI Probes Alleged Racial Hanging of Black Man
by Jerry Walker
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (NNPA)—The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has entered the investigation into the hanging death of Leonard Gakinya, 27, an African-American resident of Springfield, Mo.
“Federal resources are being utilized such as toxicology, fingerprint detection and other resources,” according to Bill Whitcomb of the U.S. Department of Justice Community Relations Service.
Gakinya was found dangling 30 feet in the air from a 100 foot communications tower in downtown Springfield, on Wednesday, Oct. 2. The body hung on the tower for three hours after it was discovered and numerous photographs were taken of the hanging corpse. The CALL was able to obtain a copy of one of these photographs.
The tower where Gakinya’s body was found is surrounded by an 8-feet high chain link fence. According to Springfield police, the fence is usually kept locked.
Emergency personnel responding to the scene used a fire truck ladder to remove the body.
Ron Yoder, Greene County deputy medical examiner, initially declared Gakinya’s death, “a clear-cut suicide.” However, enough discrepancies surfaced during the initial investigation to warrant an FBI determination that a more thorough investigation be conducted.
Dr. Jim Shelley, of the Greene County Medical Examiner’s Office, said, “There was no evidence of mistreatment, no evidence of bruising, no evidence of struggle (in the death of Gakinya).”
However, Regina Gakinya, mother of the dead man, who was not allowed to view her son’s body until 9 p.m., 12 hours after it had been discovered, said, “There was a large bruise on the right side of Leonard’s forehead.”
In addition, Gakinya’s fingerprints were not found on the tower. The reason given for this was that he had on a new pair of workman’s gloves.
However, when police took the gloves that were on Leonards’ hands to his mother to be identified, she insisted that the gloves did not belong to her son.
“Leonard didn’t have any gloves like those,” Gakinya said. “They were brand new and they didn’t even fit his hands. They were much too big for his hands.”
Rosemary-Stewart Stafford, a Springfield community activist, said one irony surrounding the hanging is that prior to the incident, she had told a meeting of the Springfield City Council that she would be attending a symposium on the historical implications and ramifications of racial lynching.
“I had been invited by Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., to make a presentation at a conference on lynchings and racial violence in America. The conference was scheduled for October 3-6. I spoke to the Springfield City Council on June 17, the one-year anniversary of the stabbing of a Black man at a Denney’s restaurant in Springfield by a group of Skin heads who resented the fact that he was with a White woman,” said Stewart-Stafford, who took a photograph of Gakinya’s body hanging from the tower. This was the photograph obtained by THE CALL.
“I mentioned that I would be attending this conference in Atlanta and that I was praying that no other racial incidents occurred between now and Oct. 3,” she added. “Ironically, Leonard Gakinya’s body was found Oct. 2. This council meeting aired at least 14 times on public television.”
According to Gakinya, other items belonging to her son are missing. “Leonard always rode his bike and carried his backpack,” she said in a voice racked with pain.
Neither Gakinya’s bicycle nor his backpack has been found.
The similarities to this incident and one which occurred in Springfield in 1906 are startling.
According to historical records, on Easter weekend in 1906, three young Black men were hung from a communications tower which was located only a few blocks from where Gakinya’s body was found.
According to records, this incident resulted in nearly the entire African-American community leaving town. Only in recent years has Springfield’s African-American community shown any substantial increase in numbers.
But that has not been without controversity. The racial climate in Springfield has grown worse, community members said.
An African-American woman living in Springfield, who asked that her name not be given, related a series of incidents that happened in 1998.
“In 1998, a janitor who worked with me at the post office lived in Republic (a predominantly White community of Springfield) where they tried to hang his son. He was working with the FBI on this case when all these nooses went up in our building “ the woman said. “He transferred out and sent his son out-of-town. We also had black-face balloons with “n----r” face stickers on them put in our work area during Halloween week. The most recent noose was found in January 2001,” she said.
Gakinya’s death has raised an outcry from Springfield’s small African-American community and from civil rights organizations across the state.
The Universal African Peoples Organization (UAPO), a St. Louis-based civil rights group, has taken the lead in coordinating the activities and efforts of a consortium of groups.
“We won’t be satisfied until it is proven beyond a shadow of a doubt that this young man’s death was indeed a suicide and not a 21st century lynching,” said Zaki Baruti, UAPO president. “If this was a lynching, the world should be outraged! It may be Springfield today but it could be St. Louis or your home town tomorrow.”
Mrs. Gakinya has requested that her son’s body be exhumed so that an autopsy can be performed by a forensic pathologist of her choosing.
####
|
|
|
|
|
|
