Are nooses the new (hate-the) black? Yet another noose-ish trinket was found at a place of prominence in Washington, D.C.—the third in about a week located on federal property.
This time the symbol of black torture and death was found near the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall, adding the most grievous insult to injury.
USA Today reports that a piece of rope was found on a bench at the memorial near the mall. A visitor turned it in at the memorial’s bookstore.
This twisted rope found at the MLK site is in addition to a noose found at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum on Friday and one found days later at the Museum of African American History and Culture on Wednesday.
This is also in addition to a spate of nooses recently found across the country, including one at a high school in North Carolina and a middle school in Florida, as well as others hanging from trees on the American University campus in D.C. after a black woman was elected head of the student government.
“The noose has long represented a deplorable act of cowardice and depravity—a symbol of extreme violence for African Americans,” said Lonnie Bunch, the director of the African-American-history museum.
In that incident, police investigators say they have surveillance video, but a spokesman declined to say what, if anything, the agency found.
Read more at USA Today.