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Pam Grier’s On-Air Lynching Account Faces Scrutiny Over Ohio Records

Fact-checks cite registries showing Ohio’s last documented lynching in 1911, decades before Grier’s childhood.

Overview

  • During an MLK Day episode of The View, Grier said her mother shielded her from a body 'hanging from a tree' and described the memory as still triggering.
  • Grier framed the account within her upbringing in a segregated military family and said the location she referenced now has a memorial.
  • Records cited by the Equal Justice Initiative and America’s Black Holocaust Museum list Ohio’s last recorded lynching in 1911 and none in Columbus, creating a timeline conflict with her claim.
  • Conservative outlets and numerous social media users challenged the account and highlighted that The View co-hosts did not question it on air.
  • Some reports noted the story does not appear in Grier’s 2010 memoir and raised biographical questions about references to Columbus in her early life.