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Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., warned Friday of «racial terror» and «widespread modern-day lynchings» in the U.S. as she joined dozens of Democrats demanding that the DOJ and FBI investigate hanging deaths of Black Americans.

Multiple official findings in several recent cases show that law enforcement or medical examiners ruled the deaths suicides, while at least one very recent death remains under a homicide investigation.

AOC alleges there is systemic racial bias at the agencies, while fellow progressive lawmaker Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., called the hangings a «national crisis» in a letter to the agencies that she spearheaded.

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«This year, there have already been 10 reported hangings of Black people in the U.S. I’m proud to have signed onto Rep. Pressley’s letter to address these widespread modern-day lynchings and put a stop to this racial terror,» Ocasio-Cortez wrote on X in support of the call.

Pressley warned in her letter that «Black folks are being found hanged in America» and insisted: «We cannot stand by while strange fruit hangs from trees across the country.»

The letter, addressed to Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel, was signed by Pressley, Ocasio-Cortez and about 50 Democrats. They demanded a «thorough, transparent, and comprehensive federal investigation into every hanging death of a Black individual across the United States,» arguing that federal agencies have failed for decades to adequately investigate such deaths.

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One 2026 case involved the death of a 21-year-old Atlanta man who had gone missing. He was later found hanging from a tree in a Cobb County park, where officials ruled out foul play and deemed the death a suicide, according to Atlanta’s NBC affiliate.

Another 2026 case involved Delta State University student Demartravion Reed in Mississippi. Officials «determined the cause of death to be a hanging and the manner of death as suicide.»

At the time, the case reopened old memories of the murder of Emmett Till, according to reports. Till was a Black teen kidnapped and murdered by White men not far from the site after he was falsely accused of flirting with a White woman in 1955.

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A Grio report on Pressley’s letter also referenced the hanging deaths of a 58-year-old man in Albany, N.Y., and a 39-year-old man in Brookfield, Wisconsin.

The Albany Police Department said Earl Smith’s death was «ruled a suicide» and investigators found «no evidence» of criminal activity.

«The Albany Police Department is aware of concerns posted on social media suggesting that criminal activity was involved with this incident, which has understandably caused public concern,» the department said.

A preliminary investigation of the Wisconsin man’s death also indicated suicide, according to Brookfield’s police chief cited by the Waukesha County Freeman.

At least one case remains under homicide investigation, according to reports.

Tasia Fortune was found hanging outside an abandoned house in Jackson, Mississippi, CNN reported Thursday. Authorities later questioned Terence Bernard Anderson, the father of one of her children, and arrested him on unrelated weapons charges, according to several reports.

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The lawmakers’ characterization also drew criticism on social media.

«Those community notes are stacking up,» one critic said, as X’s crowdsourced correction indicator included several wire reports and media links disputing Ocasio-Cortez’ claims.

«There should be some sort of penalty for willfully lying on social media, especially for a politician,» another claimed.

Former Energy Department official Matt Van Swol posted to X, «In the last ‘lynching’ of a Black woman, the media conveniently left out the prime suspect in the case was her Black boyfriend. Zero White people are lynching Black people in America today.»

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Former Senate staffer Matt Whitlock added that «every death is a tragedy, but what do you think ‘widespread’ means if only one of these was actually a homicide. Not sure you’ve landed the point about ‘racial terror’ with this.»

Ayanna Pressley at the Featured Session «Repro Revolution: A Conversation with Rep. Ayanna Pressley» during the SXSW Conference & Festivals held at the Austin Convention Center on March 9, 2025, in Austin, Texas. (Amy E. Price/SXSW Conference & Festivals via Getty Images)

X’s crowdsourced Community Notes feature also pointed readers to law-enforcement and medical-examiner findings in several of the cases, stating that most high-profile hanging deaths it identified in 2025 and 2026 had been ruled suicides and that one remained under homicide investigation.

When reached for comment, Pressley spokesperson Ricardo Sanchez directed Fox News Digital back to the lawmakers’ letter to Blanche and Patel, specifically a line reminding them that «Congress enacted the Emmett Till Antilynching Act in 2022 to ensure the DOJ and FBI are empowered to fully investigate suspicious deaths and hold individuals accountable.»

Fox News Digital reached out to Ocasio-Cortez, the DOJ and the FBI for comment.

President Donald Trump said Saturday during a trip to Ireland that he would love to see the country unified.

The Republic of Ireland gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1922, while Northern Ireland, established in 1921, has remained part of the U.K.

«I don’t want to cause any problems, but I will tell you, I’d love to see it unified. I have friends on both sides, great people. They’re Irish people. How can they be bad, right?» Trump said in Dublin while on stage with Ireland’s prime minister, Micheál Martin. «I’d like to see a unified country. I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. It’s going to happen eventually.»

He added that the U.K. «will have something to say about it obviously,» but reiterated that unification would be a «great thing.»

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In response to Trump’s comments, British Prime Minister Andy Burnham said in a statement that the U.K. government’s stance on reunification remains unchanged.

«I am not aware ​that there is majority public support for ‌another ⁠referendum, and until that changes, there will not be one,» Burnham told reporters in Parliament, according to Reuters.

Later Saturday, Trump addressed a crowd at the Deerfield Residence, the official home of the U.S. ambassador to Ireland.

U.S. Ambassador Edward S. Walsh introduced the president, who took the stage to the sound of Lee Greenwood’s «God Bless the USA.»

Early in his remarks, Trump revisited the question a reporter had asked during his meeting with Martin about the prospect of Irish reunification.

«That’s one of those questions where no matter what you say, no matter how well you say it, there’s no good answer, right?» he said, before saying reunification would be a «cool thing.»

President Donald Trump delivers remarks to U.S. Embassy personnel and business leaders at Deerfield Residence on Sept. 12, 2026, in Dublin, Ireland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

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The debate over whether Ireland should be one country has been one of the island’s most divisive political issues for decades.

At times, it was far more than a war of words. From the late 1960s through the late 1990s, Northern Ireland was gripped by decades of sectarian violence known as «the Troubles.»

Irish nationalists and republicans — drawn largely from Northern Ireland’s Catholic minority — sought to reunite the island under a single Irish state.

Unionists and loyalists, who mostly belonged to the Protestant majority, wanted Northern Ireland to remain part of the U.K.

Throughout the conflict, more than 3,500 people were killed in violence involving Irish republican and loyalist paramilitary groups, as well as British security forces.

A photographer captures a scene of soldiers in front of a building in May 1981 in Northern Ireland. (Joe McNally/Getty Images)

The fighting largely ceased with a peace deal in 1998, but in the decades since, tensions remain between Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland.

A 2024 U.K. Parliament report found that 90% of students in Northern Ireland attend schools that «are effectively segregated along religious lines.»

The peace deal signed in 1998 — known as the Good Friday Agreement or the Belfast Agreement — set up a new government that had representation for both nationalists and unionists. 

It also established that Northern Ireland will remain part of the U.K. unless a majority of citizens vote to leave through a referendum.

Brexit reignited debate over Ireland’s future, with Northern Ireland voting to remain in the European Union even as the U.K. as a whole voted to leave. Still, no referendum has been proposed or scheduled on whether Northern Ireland should leave the United Kingdom.

Reuters contributed to this report.