A noose found hanging from a lamp post outside the National Gallery of Art in Washington is the latest symbol of racial violence that has turned up in the National Mall area in recent weeks.
The noose found Saturday is the third noose found on Smithsonian grounds since late May, CNN reported.
Last month, two other nooses were found — the first at the Hirshhorn Museum on May 26, and a second noose was found inside the history galleries at the National Museum of African American History and Culture less than a week later, on May 31.
Nooses are malicious symbols of the Jim Crow-era South, segregation and the racially motivated mob violence that claimed many minority lives during that time.
Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser last month condemned what she calls signs of “hate, ignorance and fear” in the city.
“We are an inclusive city, and we do not tolerate signs of hate, ignorance and fear,” she said according to CNN. “Our diversity is what makes us stronger, and we will not relent in promoting and defending D.C. values. We do not take these incidents lightly, and we will not accept that signs of hate are signs of our time.”
U.S. Park Police are investigating the incidents, according to Fox News.
Other nooses found
Another noose turned up at a construction site in Washington this month, according to CNN. When responding to a house that was under construction in the nation’s capital, police “discovered a rope, tied in a noose, displayed by the front door.” The property manager said the noose was not present when work ended the previous day.
Yet another noose turned up in the kitchen of the Phi Kappa Tau fraternity house at the University of Maryland in April, and an ex-University of Mississippi student was indicted on civil rights charges in March, accused of hanging a noose and draping a Confederate flag on a statue of the university’s first African-American student, James Meredith.
