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The Antelope Valley's History Of Racism
While the L.A. Sheriff's Department continues its investigation into the hanging death of 24-year-old Robert Fuller in Palmdale, some in the area are highly skeptical of the initial finding of suicide, convinced that the young Black man was lynched.
Not only did Fuller's death happen in the midst of the national reckoning about systemic racism, but it occurred in the Antelope Valley, which has a particularly troubled racial history.
Neo-Nazis and skinheads have remained a presence there. And then there was the U.S. Department of Justice investigation a few years ago, which concluded that the L.A. County Housing Authority and the Sheriff's Department had been systematically discriminating against Black people living in Section 8 housing.
The racial situation in the area is "a powder keg — a bomb ready to explode," said Pharoah Mitchell, co-founder of an Antelope Valley activist group.
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