In Jena and Beyond, Nooses Return as a Symbol of Hate
By Darryl Fears
Washington Post Staff Writer
washingtonpost.com
Saturday, October 20, 2007; A01
When he reached his third-story workstation at a construction site near Pittsburgh two weeks ago, Errol Madyun saw the noose -- thick, neatly knotted and strong enough to hang a man.
"It was intimidating," said Madyun, a black ironworker.
More than 400 miles south in North Carolina, Terry Grier, superintendent of Guilford County Schools, saw the same type of noose last month at predominantly black T.W. Andrews High near Greensboro.
"It was huge," Grier, who is white, said of a noose he discovered hanging from a flagpole, one of four nooses placed at the school. "I became very angry. Part of what you think is it's a copycat of Jena."
Law enforcement authorities, including the Justice Department, are expressing concern over a recent spate of noose sightings in the aftermath of events in Jena, the small Louisiana town that has been engulfed by racial strife and was the scene of a recent civil rights demonstration.
Nooses have been looped over a tree at the University of Maryland, knotted to the end of stage-rigging ropes at a suburban Memphis theater, slung on the doorknob of a black professor's office at Columbia University in New York, hung in a locker room at a Long Island police station, stuffed in the duffel bag of a black Coast Guard cadet aboard a historic ship, and draped around the necks of black dolls in the Pittsburgh suburbs. The hangman's rope has become so prolific, some say, it could replace the Nazi swastika and the Ku Klux Klan's fiery cross as the nation's reigning symbol of hate.
"I think the noose is replacing the burning cross in the minds of many white people as the primary symbol of the Klan," said Mark Potok, editor of Intelligence Report, a magazine published by the Southern Poverty Law Center that examines hate groups.
Last week, the Justice Department called the placing of nooses "shameful" and deplored the fear and intimidation they are meant to arouse. "Many of these cowardly actions may also violate federal and state civil rights and hate crime laws," acting Attorney General Peter D. Keisler said in a statement. "The offenders should be aware, and the American people can trust, that the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation . . . are actively investigating these incidents."
But the Justice Department could not point to any recent arrests on hate-crime charges as a result of incidents involving nooses, and at a House Judiciary Committee hearing this week Democrats sharply criticized department officials for not aggressively pursuing such cases.
The noose's status as an emblem of terror is well known. It became infamous during a half-century of lynching that started in the United States in the late 19th century. More than 2,500 African Americans lost their lives, often by hanging.
"A noose is a symbol of America's oldest form of domestic terrorism," said Hilary O. Shelton, director of the NAACP's Washington office. "It was held up as an example to show that whoever you are, you could be taken this way."
At the construction site near Pittsburgh, Madyun said his white supervisor waved off his complaint: "He told me it was just a joke."
Company officials could not be reached for comment, but in a statement released shortly after the incident, according to Pittsburgh TV stations' Web sites, they said: "Zambrano Corporation deplores these actions and is investigating this offensive conduct. We're taking immediate measures to stop any further incidents of this nature."
Soon after the noose was found, a black co-worker told Madyun that a noose was left at his workstation the day before. "Obviously, it was a type of ethnic intimidation," Madyun said. "At the time, there were only three black workers at the site."
The chief of police of O'Hara Township, where the incident took place, confirmed that it had occurred but said his department is too small to carry out investigations. Madyun's case was referred to detectives with the Allegheny County police. A spokesman there did not return phone calls.
During the years of widespread lynching between 1882 and 1930, Congress rebuffed appeals by civil rights groups to pass an anti-lynching law. Meanwhile, thousands of black people, mainly men, were killed for offenses such as theft, assault and murder, as well as over accusations such as "voted for the wrong party," "argued with a white man," "demanded respect," "lived with a white woman," "tried to vote" and "sued a white man," according to the book "A Festival of Violence," a history of lynching written by two professors.
In June 2005, the Senate passed a resolution apologizing for not passing anti-lynching legislation that could have helped quell the violence.
And yet, said Naomi C. Earp, chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, nooses are still being used to intimidate African Americans.
Earp said the number of racial harassment cases filed at the EEOC since 2000 has surpassed the total number of cases filed in the 1990s.
Harassment cases often involve nooses, but the commission does not keep track of specific allegations unless they are settled or prosecuted in courts.
Since 2001, the commission has filed two dozen lawsuits in racial harassment cases involving nooses. In one case, white employees in Texas placed a rope around a black worker's neck and choked him.
"It's time for corporate America to be more proactive in preventing and eliminating racist behavior in the workplace," Earp said. "The EEOC intends to make clear that race and color discrimination in the workplace, whether verbal or behavioral, is unacceptable and will not be tolerated."
But across the country, opinions regarding the impact of nooses appear to differ widely. When the Greensboro News-Record ran a story about the four nooses at Andrews High School, an anonymous writer posted an angry comment on the newspaper's Web page.
"Once again . . . over reaction to a childish prank," the comment said. " . . With the over reaction will probably come more copycats."
In Louisiana, the LaSalle Parish schools superintendent had similar thoughts when nooses were hung at Jena High School last year.
Three white students tied them to the schoolyard's "white tree" -- where only white students gathered -- after the school's principal told a black student it was okay to sit there.
Rather than expel the offenders, in accordance with the wishes of the principal and black parents, the superintendent and school board members, all white, voted to suspend the students for three days and force them to attend a week of disciplinary classes.
By contrast, Grier, the North Carolina superintendent, vowed to track down those who hung the nooses at Andrews High. If they turn out to be students, he said, they will be harshly punished.
"I would recommend long-term suspension, which can be between 11 and 365 days," Grier said. "It was very bothersome and upsetting. It was a cowardly act."
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