the history of this country, (they were) used ... to lynch black women
and men. I hope we don't bury the history that comes with what this
symbolizes," is a reminder of what the noose means in association with
hate crimes in Louisiana."
Charles
Ogletree, the director of Harvard Law School's Charles Hamilton Houston
Institute for Race and
Justice. said this following
an incident in 2006 where three white students hung a noose on a tree
outside a high school in order to intimidate black students from sitting
under it. Now another incident has brought charges of a hate crime
committed using a noose which symbolizes a dark history in Louisiana.
A
federal grand jury today on September 27 indicted Chrisopher Shane
Mongomery of Bastrop, Louisiana for conspiring to commit a hate crime,
in an incident involving a hangman's noose in a state where the history
of hanging remains an ever-present reminder of Louisiana's past.
According to information in a press release from the Department of Justice,
Montgomery faces up to 40 years in prison on a four-count indictment
that charges that on or about November 6, 2007, Shane Montgomery and
another person, not yet identified, tied a noose around the neck of a
dead raccoon and hung the raccoon and noose from a flagpole at Beekman
Junior High School in Bastrop in order to intimidate African-American
students attending the school under a court-ordered busing policy.In
addition to being charged with the noose incident, Montgomery has also
been indicted for lying on two occasions to an FBI agent involved in the
investigation and for tampering with an involved witness.
The
Jena incident in 2006 sparked a nation-wide discussion on race
relations, nooses and racial incidents like these. It also sparked
copy-cat responses in different parts of the country, most notably
Louisiana.
A year after the Jena
incident the city of Alexandria became the site of an arrest of two
people
who were driving a red pickup with two nooses hanging off the back.
They repeatedly passed by groups of demonstrators who had arrived in the
Louisiana city to protest the Jena incident and were waiting for buses
to return them to their home states. The driver of the truck Jeremiah
Munsen, 18, was charged with driving while intoxicated and inciting to
riot, according to the police reports at the time. He admitted he and
his family are in the Ku Klux Klan and he had KKK tattoos on his chest.
The use of the noose as a symbol of degradation and fear in response to
the demonstration in Jena, Louisiana was not confined to the South. In
July 2007 a noose was put in the bag of a black Coast Guard cadet,
another was found in August on the office floor of a white officer
involved in positive race relations training, and another was found in a
tree near an area housing several black campus organizations at the
University of Maryland. There were also incidents in Alabama and
another that involved sanctions against five teachers who put a noose
around the neck of a child during a lesson on race relations at a mostly
black elementary school In Louisiana. At Columbia University a noose
was put on the door of an African American professor. Nooses
are said to raise the specter of slavery and integration, when there were violent episodes
with reference to black - white relations in Louisiana.
"Nooses were used for one thing and one thing only," said Ogletree in 2006.
"This is one of the most destructive, mean-spirited, racist examples of individual behaviour."
Montgomery faces up to 40 years in prison on a four-count indictment
that charges that on or about November 6, 2007, Shane Montgomery and
another person, not yet identified, tied a noose around the neck of a
dead raccoon and hung the raccoon and noose from a flagpole at Beekman
Junior High School in Bastrop in order to intimidate African-American
students attending the school under a court-ordered busing policy.In
addition to being charged with the noose incident, Montgomery has also
been indicted for lying on two occasions to an FBI agent involved in the
investigation and for tampering with an involved witness.
The
Jena incident in 2006 sparked a nation-wide discussion on race
relations, nooses and racial incidents like these. It also sparked
copy-cat responses in different parts of the country, most notably
Louisiana.
A year after the Jena
incident the city of Alexandria became the site of an arrest of two
people
who were driving a red pickup with two nooses hanging off the back.
They repeatedly passed by groups of demonstrators who had arrived in the
Louisiana city to protest the Jena incident and were waiting for buses
to return them to their home states. The driver of the truck Jeremiah
Munsen, 18, was charged with driving while intoxicated and inciting to
riot, according to the police reports at the time. He admitted he and
his family are in the Ku Klux Klan and he had KKK tattoos on his chest.
The use of the noose as a symbol of degradation and fear in response to
the demonstration in Jena, Louisiana was not confined to the South. In
July 2007 a noose was put in the bag of a black Coast Guard cadet,
another was found in August on the office floor of a white officer
involved in positive race relations training, and another was found in a
tree near an area housing several black campus organizations at the
University of Maryland. There were also incidents in Alabama and
another that involved sanctions against five teachers who put a noose
around the neck of a child during a lesson on race relations at a mostly
black elementary school In Louisiana. At Columbia University a noose
was put on the door of an African American professor. Nooses
are said to raise the specter of slavery and integration, when there were violent episodes
with reference to black - white relations in Louisiana.
"Nooses were used for one thing and one thing only," said Ogletree in 2006.
"This is one of the most destructive, mean-spirited, racist examples of individual behaviour."
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