She said that her mom would tell her and her brother, “‘don’t look, don’t look, don’t look,’ and she would pull us away because there’s someone hanging from a tree.
Actress Pam Grier claimed during an appearance on The View on Monday that as a child, her mother would shield her from lynched bodies in Columbus, Ohio.
"You faced a lot of racism growing up in Columbus, Ohio. How did that shape you?" co-host Sunny Hostin asked.
Grier said, "Well, the military wouldn’t allow black families to live on the base, so you had to live in an apartment. And you couldn’t take a bus, you couldn’t afford a car you walked, your dads walked to the base."
She said that her mom would tell her and her brother, "'don't look, don't look, don't look,' and she would pull us away because there's someone hanging from a tree. And they have a memorial for it now, where you can see where people were and left. And 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."
Grier was born in 1949, however, the last recorded lynching that took place in Ohio was in 1911, per America's Black Holocaust Museum. Per the Equal Justice Initiative, there were 15 reported lynchings in Ohio, none of which occurred in Franklin County, where Columbus is located.
Social media users were quick to call out Grier. MRC Associate Editor Nicholas Fondacaro wrote, "Pam Grier lies about seeing lynchings while growing up in "Columbus, Ohio" in the 1950s. The last lynching was recorded in 1911. Additionally, Grier didn't grow up in Ohio."
Matt Walsh wrote, "In order for this story to be even vaguely plausible, this woman would need to be well over 100 years old."
"Ok Jussie," wrote Megyn Kelly.
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