Timothy Lee was a twenty-three year old Black, Native American, and gay fashion student attending the University of Arts in San Francisco. He missed his BART stop late one night and ended up in Concord.
The next day, Timothy Lee’s body was found hanging from a tree in a vacant lot near the BART station. The Concord police department declared it a suicide but Timothy’s family didn’t believe this due to unusual circumstances surrounding his death.
That night, there were two other stabbings of Black men in Concord by people wearing KKK robes. Timothy’s sister’s name was misspelled on his suicide note. The NAACP unsuccessfully attempted to get the FBI involved. And the case was closed.
Nearly 40 years later, Timothy’s cousin, Frank Sterling, leads an annual memorial walk to the Concord BART station in commemoration of his death. This year, Frank is also circulating a petition to urge Rob Bonta, the California Attorney General, to reopen the case.
