On Monday’s edition of The View, to commemorate Martin Luther King Jr. Day, actress Pam Grier was teed up by co-host Sunny Hostin to recall the racism she experienced while growing up in Columbus, Ohio in the 1950s. According to her, her mom would often have to get her and her siblings to avert their eyes lest they see a body hanging from a tree. But according to the Ohio Lynching Victims Memorial, the last lynching was in 1911. Other details about the story were questionable as well.
Fresh from defending discrimination against white people earlier in the show, Hostin teed up Grier to share her experiences with racism, specifically during her time in Columbus, Ohio:
But let me ask you this: because you've been the first so many times, but you were the first black woman on the cover of Ms. magazine in 1975. You paved the way for black female representation in the stunt industry as well. But before breaking all of those barriers in Hollywood and other places, you faced a lot of racism growing up in Columbus, Ohio. How did that shape you?
Grier responded by initially recalling how, in her early life, her dad was in the military and would have to walk to the base because of segregation. Her story quickly shifted to seemingly recounting how her mother would try to protect her and her siblings from seeing people hanging in trees:
And sometimes we would go from, you know, tree shade to shade to get back to the apartment, my brother and I, my mom, with bags. And my mom would go, “don't look, don't look, don't look.” She’d 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.
Pam Grier recalls her mom trying to protect her from seeing lynched bodies hanging to trees in Columbus, Ohio. She noted that white families would also be lynched for supporting black families:
— Nicholas Fondacaro (@NickFondacaro) January 19, 2026
"My mom would go, 'don't look, don't look, don't look,' and she would pull us away… pic.twitter.com/UG6AaZfy1q
But something wasn’t right with her story.
Grier was born on May 26, 1949. The Ohio Lynching Victims Memorial documented the last lynching as June 27, 1911 (the victim’s name was not reported). The kicker? It occurred in Cleveland.
Despite the facts, Grier’s dubious claims were met with approval from Hostin and moderator Whoopi Goldberg. Faux conservative co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin didn’t offer any push back, just a quick pivot to another topic:
GOLDBERG: Yeah.
HOSITN: Yeah.
FARAH GRIFFIN: Pam, you’ve done too many extraordinary things to highlight.
Curiously, Hostin’s tee up may have been wrong too.
According to Grier’s Wikipedia page, she wasn’t born in Columbus, Ohio, but rather Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The North Carolina Lynching Victims Memorial listed the last lynching in her town as December 24, 1890.
In both instance, Grier would have to be over 100 years old.
Her Wiki page also noted that a few years after she was born, Grier’s family moved to England with her father’s Air Force reassignment, then to California, and then Denver.
The transcript is below. Click "expand" to read:
ABC’s The View
January 19, 2026
11:37:33 a.m. Eastern(…)
SUNNY HOSTIN: But let me ask you this: because you've been the first so many times, but you were the first black woman on the cover of Ms. magazine in 1975. You paved the way for black female representation in the stunt industry as well. But before breaking all of those barriers in Hollywood and other places, you faced a lot of racism growing up in Columbus, Ohio. How did that shape you?
PAM GRIER: Whoo. 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. Whoo. And sometimes we would go from, you know, tree shade to shade to get back to the apartment, my brother and I, my mom, with bags. And my mom would go, “don't look, don't look, don't look.” She’d 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.
WHOOPI GOLDBERG: Yeah.
HOSITN: Yeah.
ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN: Pam, you’ve done too many extraordinary things to highlight.
(…)
