Actress Pam Grier is beloved for her fierce onscreen performances in 1970s Blaxploitation films like “Coffy” and “Foxy Brown.” Now, she’s making news as some are questioning comments she made about witnessing the aftermath of brutal acts of terror against Black people during her childhood.
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During a Jan. 19 appearance on “The View,” the actress talked about the racism she faced growing up in Columbus, Ohio. She told a story about how her mother had to shield her face to protect her from seeing lynched bodies hanging from trees while they walked home from school.
“It triggers me today to see that a voice can be silenced, and if a white family supported a Black, they’re going to get burned down or killed or lynched as well,” she told the hosts.
Her story touched some members of the studio audience, who let out a collective gasp after hearing her speak. But others online are calling B.S. on a story they say is riddled with historical inaccuracies, citing data from America’s Black Holocaust Museum, which lists the last recorded lynching in the state of Ohio in June 1911— almost 40 years before Grier was born.
Conservative television personality Megyn Kelly was one of the first to question Grier’s comments.
“She was born in ’49, and she wants us to believe as a young girl that…people [were] lynched in Ohio?” she said on her podcast.
Others chimed in with jokes, claiming that no such thing could have happened in the midwest during the 1950s.
“I remember the battle of Gettysburg like it was yesterday, my momma had to shield my eyes too,” wrote someone on YouTube.
But some are sticking by Grier’s side, arguing that we can’t believe everything we read in the history books, especially when it comes to the atrocities people of color have suffered at the hands of white people.
TikToker @ariev0gues said growing up in Texas and Louisiana with an older Gen X mother and aunts and uncles who were Baby Boomers, stories like Grier’s were not unheard of.
“Let me tell you something I learned from ‘The Boondocks,’ lack of evidence does not mean evidence of lack,” said TikToker @ariev0gues in a post. “What we not gonna do is disrespect Ms. Foxy Brown.”
Another X user defended Grier on the platform, arguing that the actress would have nothing to gain by making up a story about Black lynchings.
“It’s wild to see the disrespect Pam Grier is getting on here,” wrote someone on X. “She has no reason to lie about lynchings. If she said she saw bodies hanging from trees, why would y’all go to Google in an effort to prove her lived experience wrong? Is it crack?”
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