Urban Unrest

05 December 2007 | Politics | Ernesto Aguilar

A statement from one of our esteemed Congressfolk:

The House of Representatives, today, passed H. Res. 826 by voice vote. This bill introduced by Congressman Al Green (TX-09) and Congresswoman Laura Richardson (CA-37) expresses “that the hanging of nooses is a horrible act when used for the purpose of intimidation and which under certain circumstances can be a criminal act that should be thoroughly investigated by Federal law enforcement authorities and that any criminal violations should be vigorously prosecuted”. H. Res. 826 has 60 cosponsors including House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers, Ranking Member Lamar Smith and Congressman James Sensenbrenner. This bill also gained wide-ranging community support from the Southern Poverty Law Center, the League of United Latin American Citizens
(LULAC), the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the National Coalition for Asian Pacific American Community Development (NCAPA).

In the past two months, nooses have been found in a North Carolina high school, in a Home Depot in New Jersey, on a Louisiana school playground, on the campus of the University of Maryland, on a Columbia University professor’s office door and in a factory in Houston, Texas. The Southern Poverty Law Center has recorded between 40 and 50 suspected hate crimes involving nooses since September 2007. Additionally, since 2001, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has filed more than 30 lawsuits that involve the displaying of nooses in places of employment. Historically, the noose is associated with the terror of lynching, and has been used to intimidate, threaten violence, and terrorize based on racial discrimination and prejudice.

“America is a nation of hope, not hate. We celebrate our diversity. Recently, situations involving ‘noose intimidation’ have taken place in our great nation and compelled the United States Congress to act. ‘Noose intimidation’ is the invidious hanging or displaying of a noose for the purpose of intimation, humiliation, or denigration. It takes us back to a time when lynchings and cross-burnings were all too common. We have come too far in this country in the struggle for human equality to allow these acts of intimidation to undo our progress. In supporting this resolution, Members of Congress from both sides of the aisle stand united against these divisive acts of hate and intimidation. Our great nation was founded on the ideals of liberty and justice for all,” stated Congressman Al Green. “According to Tuskegee Institute, more than 4,700 people were lynched between 1882 and 1959. African Americans and Americans of Italians, Jews and Hispanic ancestry comprise the vast majority of lynching victims. For a period of time in our nation the rising plea for civil rights by numerous Americans was answered with the senseless brutality of the hangman’s noose. The fact that H. Res. 826 has the backing of individuals and groups that span political, racial and religious lines demonstrates that the perpetrator of hate shall find no refuge in the quarters of an America determined to turn the page on treacherous bigotry and overt hate. The time has come for us to once and for all condemn noose intimidation for what it truly is- a hate-filled symbol of intimidation and vigilante injustice which has no place in an America of the free and the brave”

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