
In the palpable silence, the resonance of distress was impossible to ignore; a sudden intake of breath, a staggered utterance, or a stifled shriek. And then, the symphony of pure terror crescendoed; an adult, overcome with dread, succumbing to childlike wails of fear.
It was this sonic thermometer of dread that a psychiatrist measured one day in 1964, documenting the unseen terror consuming a man named Barney Hill. A World War II veteran, whose stature was as imposing as his Darth Vader-esque tone and his precisely above-average IQ of 140, Hill became uncharacteristically undone.
The breakdown occurred as the psychiatrist prodded Hill to revisit a fateful night from three years prior. Hill relayed a chilling tale of him and his wife, Betty, targeted by an enigmatic light along a deserted New Hampshire mountainside roadway, resulting in their abduction by humanoid creatures aboard an unidentified flying object who subjected them to medical examinations.
This spine-chilling narrative has been branded as perhaps the most famous UFO abduction account in history. One historian even likened the Hills to the “Adam and Eve of alien abduction” tales. Their experience was dramatized in a best-selling book, immortalized on screen with a movie starring James Earl Jones, and has since provided the blueprint for nearly every subsequent pop-cultural depiction of alien encounters.
However, a new literary perspective posits that the story is less about extraterrestrial life and more about the racial divide. The Hills, a civil rights activist duo who also happened to be an interracial couple, weaved a tale reflecting their mounting dissatisfaction with the languid progress of the civil rights movement, argues historian Matthew Bowman in his book – “The Abduction of Betty and Barney Hill: Alien Encounters, Civil Rights, and the New Age in America.”
As Halloween’s eerie exhilaration gains momentum, Bowman’s book adds a new racial angle to the renowned narrative. Bowman, together with other scholars, reinterprets it as an exemplar of the racial scourge in American history that still sends shivers down the spine.
Bowman recently suggested that Barney Hill’s trials as a Black man in mid-20th century America were inherently intertwined with his alleged alien encounter. As chapter head of NAACP in New Hampshire during the time of the purported abduction, Hill and his white wife, a fellow civil rights campaigner and social worker, confronted racial prejudices head-on.
Their fear-ridden recollections, unraveled under hypnosis, vividly echoed the racial persecution they experienced. Barney Hill’s apparent dread was palpable as he desperately recounted their frightful encounter, whispering, “God, what is it? … God, I’m scared!”
Their experience marked a pivotal change in the narrative of human-alien interactions. Prior encounters documented benevolent and wise alien visitors, like the extraterrestrial sojourner of the classic 1951 movie “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
Yet, the Hills added an element of horror into this narrative: gray-skinned, large-headed aliens with pitch-black eyes, inexplicable time lapses, and forced medical examinations, that have since become keystones in movies like “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and TV series like “The X-Files.”
In the eyes of some observers, a racial undercurrent always underscored their narrative, mirroring their subconscious fears. The year of Hill’s hypnosis, 1964, was one signaling racial tension and the Cold War turmoil simmering across the United States.
The Hills’ narrative was likened by some critics to the macabre grandeur of a gothic horror novel, mixing elements of a pitch-black night, apparitional specters, and an underlying sexual tension in one gripping tale. It shared common themes of Western folklore, such as the chilling ordeal of being whisked away and violated by an otherworldly creature.
Despite skepticism from the scientific community, the Hills affirmed their experience. Barney Hill succumbed to a stroke in 1969, but Betty continued to steadfastly affirm their alleged abduction until her demise in 2004.
As the years roll on, the Hills’ story may shift genres from a UFO abduction anecdote to something mirroring the dread portrayed in racial horror movies like “Candyman” and “Get Out.”
These films encapsulate experiences all too common for Barney Hill and other people of color; instances when their mere presence incites dread, as they are perceived as alien beings.